


Adriana and Voldemort: The Beginning

by A_Perverted_Romance_Addict



Series: Adriana & Voldemort [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Albus Dumbledore, DADA Professor Voldemort, Don't copy to another site, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Female Harry is a Drama Queen that faints for dramatic effect, Female Harry is obsessed with make-up and fashion, Harry Potter is a Horcrux, Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, M/M, Mpreg, Pre-Harry/Voldemort, Remus is an honorary Godfather, Sirius and Severus raise Female Harry, Virgin Harry, Virgin Severus Snape, Virgin Sirius Black, Virgin Voldemort, Voldemort wants to kill Female Harry because she's driving him Crazy with her nonsense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-02-10 20:19:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 44,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18667660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Perverted_Romance_Addict/pseuds/A_Perverted_Romance_Addict
Summary: When the Dark Lord targets his former childhood friend and her husband, Severus realises his mistake in informing Voldemort about the prophecy.Determined to prevent their deaths and to spare the innocent child from becoming a killing machine, Severus decides to form a temporary alliance with one of his former tormentors, Sirius Black.Despite their best efforts, Lily and James still die, leaving baby Adriana an orphan. They decide to blood adopt and raise her, but the only way the law will allow them to do that is if they get married.After overcoming a few complications along the way, they decide to go through with the marriage to give Adriana a happy and stable family.However, unbeknownst to them, Voldemort is still very much alive and present in their lives. Two of his seven soul pieces reside at 12 Grimmauld Place and Prince Manor: the seemingly inoffensive golden locket with an emerald letter ‘S’ at the front and Adriana’s mind.





	1. How It All Began

**Author's Note:**

> Another story, another series, another female Harry, this time around she's called Adriana. 😊 (I know, I seem to have a thing for female names that start with 'A' as well as virgin characters). 
> 
> I plan to make this a duology, with the third part being a spin-off. The first part already has 19 chapters scheduled and I doubt I will change the number, I already have title names and all and a vague idea of what and how much happens in each chapter. 🙂 The update will be bi-weekly, every other Wednesday. 🙂
> 
> It's a hardcore AU, which means that A LOT of things are different from canon. The story is set 10 years later than in canon (so the 90s and early 2000s). While this is rated M, it's mostly because of the violence at the beginning of the fic and a scene maybe two of male slash, otherwise Voldemort x Female Harry don't become a couple in this one (they don't even kiss), but they interact and are setting a basis for their 'future' relationship in part 2. I hope you don't mind. Also, Adriana is going to be a very peculiar character that might not sit well with everyone, 😅 so you have been warned here and in the tags, so do expect her to be very 'over the top', almost like a caricature (She will show some character growth in the sequel, but in this one, not so much). 😅 If you have any more doubts or questions feel free to ask me and I'll gladly answer them. 😄
> 
> As usual leave kudos and comments to let me know your thoughts. Subscriptions and bookmarks are also a great way to show support. 😸

_27 August 1989_

After almost being caught eavesdropping at the meeting between Dumbledore and Trelawney, Severus Snape left the Hog’s Head and hurried to the Dark Lord to inform him of this new development, while the first two lines of the prophecy were still fresh in his mind.

He was granted audience with the man. Kneeling in front of him, his head lowered, he addressed him. “My Lord, I have news,” he said.

“What have you learnt?”

“I have been paying close attention to Dumbledore’s movements, just like you asked me to, and I have followed him to his brother’s pub, where he held a job interview for the Divination teaching post at Hogwarts.”

Severus paused, clearing his throat.

“And?” came the Dark Lord’s unimpressed and bored voice.

“The woman he was interviewing made a prophecy, my Lord,” said Severus carefully. “A prophecy about you,” he swallowed hard. There was no easy way to say it, “… you and your downfall.” He concluded by squeezing his eyes shut, bracing himself for a Crucio.

When nothing came, he dared a glance at the Dark Lord, who had an impassive expression on his face. For some reason, not getting a reaction out of him was even scarier to Severus than if he started yelling and destroying things.

“What exactly did the prophecy say?” he asked in a low voice, so low in fact, that Severus had to strain his hearing to hear him.

“I couldn’t hear it entirely, only the beginning, my Lord,” fumbled Severus, but Voldemort pressed for the words he heard.

“What did the prophecy say?” he insisted. This time, Voldemort’s voice was stern.

Sighing in defeat, Severus began reciting the first two lines of the prophecy. “The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.”

When he concluded, there was a long buzzing silence.

“Leave, Severus. I need some time to think this through,” said Voldemort calmly and quietly.

Not wanting to risk the Dark Lord’s anger, Severus left the room immediately.

…

Even moments after Severus left, Voldemort remained frozen, the overheard lines of the prophecy still echoing ominously inside his head like a bad omen. No, not like. It _was_ a bad omen.

He gripped the arms of his chair tightly and squeezed his eyes shut.

He could lose _everything_ he had worked so hard to achieve. He was _so_ close to winning this war he could practically taste it on his tongue. But he could lose _all_ of his progress, _all_ of his effort, because of some prophetic _child_.

He gritted his teeth and fisted his clawed hands until he drew blood. ‘No,’ he said to himself. ‘I’m not going to let some yet unborn babe ruin everything I’ve built.’

He wasn’t particularly fond of infanticide, but if he already committed patricide and countless other murders, he might as well take out the threat before it became a problem, because he didn’t doubt for a second that, in his desperation, Dumbledore would use _anything_ to take him down at this point, even the baby. He would train it; mould it into a human killing machine with its primary target being Lord Voldemort.

At least the old coot didn’t know or suspect the possibility of him having horcruxes as his lifeline. However, Dumbledore was astute and cunning; he could figure it out with the smallest of hints.

He shook his head. No, he wasn’t going to let the prophecy come to pass.

First, he needed to find out which woman that had defied him on three occasions would give birth to his enemy. Since the prophecy was referring to a child born in July, the baby wasn’t even conceived yet, therefore, he still had some time to prepare.

Although, now that he thought about it, he could simply eliminate all the couples that fell into the category of thrice defying him. If the child never even had the chance to exist, that sounded even better.

His lips split into a feral grin and a deep chuckle reverberated in his throat. He was going to ensure and protect his victory and life with every single fibre of his being, even if he had to massacre entire families to do it, and in doing so; he would finally defeat the man he hated above everything in this world, Albus Dumbledore.

…

For the next few days, Voldemort had locked himself inside his study and compiled a list of names. Edgar Bones and his family, the Aurors Longbottom, the Potters, and Marlene McKinnon and her family. Granted, it wasn’t a long list since dark and neutral families and couples didn’t count by default, therefore the only ones that openly opposed him were light families and couples that either supported or actively helped Dumbledore in his war effort.

Satisfied with the list he had written, he gathered his Death Eaters.

“My friends,” he addressed them with an overly sweet tone. Oh, how he _hated_ using that word and that tone, but as long as those idiots thought he valued them and that they were important to him and his cause, he would have to suffer through it, even though he wanted to openly shudder and gag every time he had to be polite with his followers. The only people he actually valued were the brothers Lestrange and the new recruits Severus Snape and Bartemius Crouch Jr. The rest could go die in a ditch for all he cared after they’ve served their purpose.

“A few days ago, young Severus has brought to my attention some alarming news that might jeopardise everything we’ve worked for.”

He paused for dramatic effect. A few gasps broke the deadly silence that reigned in the room.

“It would seem that a seer had told Dumbledore a prophecy, announcing a child that would defeat me,” he continued, unperturbed. “The child has yet to be born; in fact, the child has yet to be conceived, since the seer had placed the birth of the babe at the end of the seventh month, July. As you can imagine, Dumbledore will probably hold onto this prophecy child and use it to win this war. To prevent this from happening we are going to hunt down every eligible female before they have the chance to give birth to the menace. Why wait for the baby to be born, when we can stop its birth from happening?” He said and received a chorus of affirmative murmurs.

“I do not yet know which female will carry the babe, but I have spent the last four days compiling a list of couples and families associated with Dumbledore and have narrowed it down to four surnames: Bones, McKinnon, Longbottom … and Potter.”

His expression hardened and now he spoke with an underlying threat in his deep, velvet voice. “Should you see any of these families and couples during your raids or on a street during your grocery shopping, you have strict orders to kill them on sight.”

He levelled them with a stern look, Rodolphus’ fiancée, Bellatrix Black, especially.

“No unnecessary duelling or torture, simply _kill_ them. I want them dead by the end of the year together with any young children they may already have. Should you fail to kill every single one of those four families, there will be hell to pay.”

They either gulped, paled, stiffened or broke out in cold sweat at his threat.  

He continued, “And it won’t be just what I’ll do to you if you fail to do as I say, but if we end up losing this war because of your ineptitude and inefficiency, you will all die or be locked up in Azkaban, serving as dementor food for the rest of your pathetic lives.”

Their faces reflected horror.

“Therefore, if you don’t want to waste away in a prison or as a corpse, you better do as I say and we should be victorious by the end of this year.”

They nodded in unison.

“Good,” he said, satisfied. “Now leave.”

Lucius Malfoy cleared his throat.

“What is it Lucius?”

“What about other Order members? Should we also kill them on sight or have you planned something else?”

“You can capture the others and bring them to me for interrogation,” said Voldemort simply. “Should they prove to be too big of a problem for you, you have permission to kill them as well.”

After another round of nods and ‘Yes, my Lord’, they left the room one by one.

…

Severus knew he messed up big time telling the Dark Lord about the prophecy as soon as Voldemort announced the upcoming massacre of the Potters. He knew he should be disgusted other families were being targeted, but they didn’t care for him so why should he care for them? The only one he still cared about, even though their friendship had ended on a sour note, was Lily.

At some point after they parted ways, he resented her for being judgmental, for not being more understanding of his circumstances, of his pain. He resented her for defending Marauders and shading him and his housemates simply because they were Slytherins or as she put it, because they used Dark Magic and Marauders did not.

It didn’t matter to her that he almost lost his life because of Black, what mattered to her was that James Potter came and saved him as if he was some kind of hero. As if that simple fact could erase all the other shit that he put him through. “You should be grateful, Severus,” she said. Sometimes he thought it would have been better if he did die that time.

Above all, he resented her when she suddenly started dating the same man who had made it his life’s mission to make his life miserable. And it’s not like the man changed for the better! He still tormented him, only that he tried to be more subtle about it, although Potter and subtlety weren’t concepts that would go well together.

So yes, he was angry with her for doing something like that to someone she called a friend.

He didn’t know why he even cared. Why did he still cling to the image of Lily, when things between them would never go back to how they were when they were kids? Because regardless of how their friendship ended, she was still the first person he connected with as a boy. She was the first person his age who was like him.

Therefore, for the sake of those childhood days, he will protect Lily from Voldemort. However, protecting Lily meant protecting the child she will have with James and for the child to even be conceived, he needed to make sure James Potter survived long enough to impregnate Lily and then he could drop dead the following second for all he cared.

The question now was: how could he protect them?

He couldn’t just appear before them, telling them about the prophecy, when Lily wouldn’t even be pregnant, and Voldemort’s plans to kill them. At the very least, they would think him completely mad and when they found out he was the one that related that piece of information to the Dark Lord in the first place, they might not want to accept his help at all.

He could go to Dumbledore. After all, the man was powerful, he knew the entire prophecy, but then he remembered all the times he defended the Marauders and how he always labelled everything they did to him as ‘harmless pranks’, and he felt an aversion to the idea of going to the man for help. He was desperate, but not that desperate.

Besides, if the Dark Lord was right about something is that Dumbledore, in his desperation to triumph over him, would have no qualms over using the baby as a weapon. And with how blindly Lily and James followed and believed the old man, if he told them to leave the baby to his care to train it, they just might agree to it willingly.

The child might be the spawn of James Potter, but they didn’t deserve to be controlled and used like that.

He couldn’t jeopardise his position as the member of the Dark Lord’s Inner Circle by openly going against Voldemort’s orders, but he had to think of something. Unfortunately, his mind only came up with one last option. It was probably the worst or the best option (it depended on how you looked at it) out of all three that occurred to him so far.

He might not be desperate enough to seek out Dumbledore’s help, but apparently, he was desperate enough to seek out Sirius Black.

The same man, who had tormented him alongside Potter because of his Hogwarts house and his interest in Dark Arts. The same man, who almost got him killed … He was also the only one who could help him get James and Lily away from all this mess. After all, he was James’ friend. He would do anything to protect him, right? Hopefully, entering a secret and temporary alliance with a rogue Death Eater to protect his life was one of those things.


	2. Delaying the Inevitable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus and Sirius meet and agree to work together to save James and Lily, but Voldemort still kills them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your support! 😍 It makes me happy seeing that you enjoy the story and the characters. As always, I will stick to the story I've come up with and hope that you will enjoy it as well. 
> 
> Without further ado, enjoy the chapter! 😄

_3 September 1989_

He decided to meet up with Black in a muggle pub. Less chance of someone from both sides spying on the conversation, and since he spelled the note to reveal its true message to Black only, while to others, in case they read it, it would appear as a date note. It wasn’t ideal, but people would be less inclined to follow the mutt, if they thought he was going to meet up with someone for a hook-up than if it were any other type of meeting. Probably the mutt already did plenty of those.

He was sitting at one of the tables drinking a pint of beer, waiting for the damned mutt to appear. All the while, people around him were watching a football match projected on the screen and cheering.

Fifteen minutes later, Black nonchalantly slid into the seat opposite his. He pulled out the note he sent him and threw it on the table.

“This better not be a fucking prank or a threat, Snivellus,” he snarled, leaning forward, but made sure to keep his voice quiet, “because I swear, if I need to kill you to protect James and his wife, I will do it.”

Severus’ lips twisted in disgust.

“Do you really think I have the time for threats and pranks, you mutt?” he hissed, leaning forward as well. “And believe me, Black; if this wasn’t as serious as it is, I would have never in a million years considered coming to you for help.”  

Black narrowed his eyes. “Then why _did_ you come to me for help? Why not go to Dumbledore?”

Severus remained silent for a few moments, avoiding eye contact and glancing around the bar, before setting his gaze on Black again. “I don’t trust him,” he murmured.

Black looked flabbergasted at the admission. “How can you _not_ trust a man like Dumbledore? The man knows what he’s doing; he has experience dealing with Dark Lords.”

“That’s _exactly_ why I don’t trust him.”

Black’s nose and brow frowned in confusion. He blinked and shook his head slightly. “I don’t understand how that makes you distrust him.”

“He has experience fighting a war, he knows how to strategize, how to manipulate people and situations, who to save … and who to sacrifice.” Severus’ eyes darkened. “Because Dumbledore is the sort of man who will go to any lengths to defeat someone like the Dark Lord, even if it means using an innocent child and turning it into a ruthless killing machine. Because to Dumbledore, what is but one child when the livelihood of many are on the line.”

Black still had no idea what Snape was talking about, but his dog senses were telling him the man knew something he didn’t and if there was anything that Sirius hated more than Dark wizards, Slytherins and Dark magic was not knowing dirty little secrets of other people. After all, out of all the Marauders he was the biggest gossip. Usually, he was the first one with all the tea due to the map and James’ cloak, which if you asked him was specifically invented to spy on others and eavesdrop on juicy conversations.

Black narrowed his eyes and sent a shrewd look Severus’ way. “You have tea to spill, Snivellus, and I want in on _all_ the tea.”

The crowd around them cheered loudly as one of the teams playing football on the screen had scored a goal.

Making sure no one was paying attention to them, Severus leaned in closer and whispered, forcing Sirius to lean in closer as well until they were just a few inches away. “During my assignment, I overheard a prophecy made to Dumbledore by Sybill Trelawney during her interview for the Divination teaching post. I didn’t manage to hear it entirely, but I did manage to overhear the following: The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies.”

Black frowned. “Hold up. The Order just had a meeting a couple of days ago and Dumbledore didn’t mention anything about a prophecy. When did you hear this?”

“A few days ago, on August 27th.”

Black remained quiet, a sour look on his face. “And … are you sure Lily and James are the couple mentioned in the prophecy?”

“Between the other three families on the Dark Lord’s hit list, their chances are at 25%, but the Dark Lord doesn’t care about that, he’ll go after them regardless,” retorted Severus.

“Fuck.” Sirius ran his fingers through his hair and let out a frustrated sigh. “Dammit, Snivellus, if you hadn’t gone and run your mouth with Mouldy shorts this shit wouldn’t be happening.”

“Do you think it occurred to me he would come up with a hit list with Lily on it when I told him about the prophecy?” hissed Severus defensively. “I was only doing my job.”

“Oh, yeah?” snorted Sirius derisively, “And what job is that?”

Severus refused to rise to the bait. “If I’d known he would target Lily, I would have never told him about the prophecy,” he said instead.

“Lily this, Lily that, it’s always Lily with you, Snivellus, Lily, Lily, Lily,” spat Sirius contemptuously. “Honestly, Snivellus, no wonder James was convinced you had a crush on her and obviously still do with how much you talk about her.”

“I _do not_ harbour romantic feelings for Lily,” snarled Severus, glaring daggers at Sirius for insinuating something like that.

“Then why are you doing this for her, when you could be helping the other endangered people as well?” insisted Sirius with a glare of his own.

“I’m not helping them, because I simply don’t care about them,” said Severus. “Never have, never will. I’m not a saint nor a good Samaritan, nor do I pretend or ever intend to be. If it were for me, they can all die by the end of the war. The only reason I’m doing this for Lily is to pay an homage to our friendship from when we were kids, nothing more and nothing less.”

Sirius still looked unconvinced. “Yeah, whatever, Snivellus,” he huffed, crossing his arms.

“Why are we even discussing my motivations?” sighed Severus, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. “Shouldn’t you be happy I’m informing you of the incoming danger so that you can protect your best friend and his wife and their possible future offspring?”

Black continued to sulk.

“Besides, you, Black, are not exactly the epitome of sanctitude yourself with how despicably you’ve treated a portion of the school populace simply for existing, so please, spare me the talk about morals and similar things. Now, can I count on your co-operation or will you act like an idiotic, self-righteous, butt-hurt Gryffindor instead?”

Sirius bristled at the insult and looked more than tempted to lash out at Severus, but he opted for gritting his teeth and glaring at the greasy git.

“And why should I work with someone like _you_?” he challenged him.

“Oh, I don’t know,” began Snape matter-of-factly, “because I’m a Death Eater? And not just any Death Eater, but a member of the Dark Lord’s Inner Circle. As much as you may hate someone like me, I have the intel you need to protect them.”

“And why can’t you do that yourself?” grumbled Sirius.

“Are you really asking me this, Black?”

“If you want to restore the friendship with Lily, then this is your chance to do it by showing your face before them.”

“While I appreciate your well-intended thoughts,” said Severus with sarcasm, “do you seriously believe Potter will allow me anywhere close his wife or their potential child? And even Lily, with how things ended between us, do you seriously think she would be inclined to receive me with open arms and believe my words? Especially when she learns, I unintentionally put her in the position of prey. Please, Black, prove me wrong by showing at least a sliver of intelligence and rational thought.”

“Okay, fine,” he blurted out. He took a deep breath. “I’ll work with you. If it will keep James and his wife and child alive … I’m prepared to work with you.”

Snape raised his eyebrows and his eyes widened. He quickly recovered by clearing his throat and schooling his features in an impassive façade.

“But that doesn’t make us friends, Snivellus. Do you understand?”

“Perfectly.”

“So … how are we going to do it?”

Severus reached into his inner pocket, pulled out two muggle mobile phones and two phone chargers, and passed one of each to Black. “Like this.”

Sirius began inspecting the devices. “And what is this exactly?”

“This,” sighed Severus, “is a muggle mobile phone. Muggles use this little thing to communicate with each other, either by calling each other or by messaging each other,” he explained.

“And how exactly does it work?”

Sighing, Severus began to explain to Sirius how muggle mobile phones operated. “First, for the phone to be in working conditions you need to make sure it’s charged. This symbol here at the top left corner, tells you how charged your phone is.” As he was explaining, he was also showing everything to Sirius, who leaned forward and was paying very close attention to the explanation. After all, his friend’s life was on the line, together with his wife and future child’s lives.

“If the battery is full, the symbol will be completely black, but if there is only a bit of black left, that means you have to charge it. You do that with this cable here. You take the smaller end to connect it with the phone, like this, and you put the other, larger, end into an electric socket. Since we, wizards, don’t use electricity, you need to find some muggle public space to charge your phone. An Internet café or a library is your best option.”

Sirius nodded, completely focussed. “And what happens if it gets empty?” he inquired.

“It will automatically shut down,” said Severus. “In that case, you have to plug it into the electricity and turn it on, by holding this button, until the screen brightens up and text starts to appear.”

“Okay.”

“Once it’s on, it will then ask you to enter the PIN code, which is a four-digit number that comes with the SIM card, and I have it here for you.” He gave him the plastic credit card size card with the PIN and PUK codes.

Sirius took it and inspected it. “What’s this PUK code for?”

“If you, by any chance, lock your phone by erroneously typing the PIN code three times in a row, the PUK code will unlock the phone again. So, please, it’s very important that you keep this card and don’t lose it,” explained Severus. “If you do and your phone shuts down, you won’t be able to access it, unless you change the SIM card.”

“Okay, I’ll take good care of it,” he assured him.

“Now, besides paying attention to the battery, which, if you don’t use the phone often, can last up to three days, maybe even four, without recharging, you need to make sure there’s enough money on the phone to send messages. You check your money balance by typing *XXX# and pushing this button here, which also sends messages and calls others.”

Black nodded.

“Now, before we move onto how to send messages, I want you to repeat everything I said to you until now.”

Sirius cleared his throat, rolled his shoulders a few times and cracked his neck side to side. “So … I have to make sure there is enough money to send messages, and that the battery is full or somewhat full. I need to charge the phone with electricity through this string in an Internet café or a library. If the phone shuts down, I have to plug it into the electricity and press and hold this button until the screen lights up. Then, when the phone asks me for a PIN code, I type this four-digit number and push this button here. If I mess the PIN code three times in a row, the phone will lock down and I need the PUK code to unlock it if it happens.” He paused. “Did I get it right?” he asked hopeful.

“Yes, you got it right. I’m impressed,” said Severus and indeed sounded genuinely impressed.

Sirius perked up like a dog and a smug smirk stretched across his face. “See, Snivellus, I’m not as stupid as I look, I can remember stuff pretty easily if I want and need to.”

“Thank Merlin for that then,” said Severus dryly. “Okay, now that you recited it, I want you to show me you understood by actually going through the steps you just described in case your phone shuts down.”

Severus took Black’s phone, turned it off and passed it back to Black, who surprisingly got it right on the first try. Even checking the money balance.

“Nice work, Black,” said Severus and Black beamed proudly. “Now that you got these basics down, let me show you how to write and send messages. Don’t worry, there’s only one number in the contacts menu, mine, and it had better stay that way. No messing around with this phone, Black.”

“Relax, Snivellus, what else would I do with this phone anyway?”

“I don’t know, muggle hook ups?” suggested Severus, shrugging.

Black grimaced. “Just what kind of person do you think I am, Snivellus?”

“A bullying man-whore,” deadpanned Severus.

Sirius stared, horrified, at Snape. “I may be a bully, but I’m definitely not a man-whore,” he assured him. “Hell, I’m a virgin.”

Now it was Severus’ turn to stare at Sirius, but in utter disbelief. “You’re joking.”

“No,” he said in all seriousness, “I’m Sirius; I thought you knew that by now after seven years of going to the same school.”

“Ha-ha,” said Severus dryly, “you are hilarious, Black. Really, I’ve never laughed so hard in my life I feel like my insides are going to pop out.”

Sirius knew it was sarcasm, but he smirked mischievously regardless and said, “You’re welcome, Snivellus,” while winking at him.

Severus rolled his eyes. “Let’s proceed with how to write and send message.”

“Fine with me.”

Another five minutes later and Sirius had managed to exchange a message with Severus successfully.

…

_4 October 1989_

“What happened with convincing James and Lily to go on a trip abroad for their honeymoon?” hissed Severus furiously as soon as they met in a deserted and tight muggle back alley in the evening.

“I _told_ you already. I tried. _Multiple_ times. But every time I brought it up and was insistent about it, James became suspicious, and then I had to convince him I only thought he might need some alone and away time with his wife and that I wasn’t simply trying to get rid of them,” explained Sirius, agitated.

Severus rubbed his forehead and let out a heavy sigh.

“But don’t worry,” Sirius assured him, “James and Lily will be away from the battlefield for a while … I think … I hope,” he said, uncertain.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it turns out that James’ parents have caught Dragon Pox and well, James and Lily have moved into the Potter Manor to take care of them.”

Severus was horrified. “And what if they end up catching the disease as well?”

Sirius’ optimism faltered. “Oh, shit!” he cursed, running his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t think about that.”

Severus sighed. “Look, what’s done is done. You can’t just tell Potter not to be with his ill parents.”

“Well, yeah,” hesitated Sirius, “but what good will our efforts to keep him and Lily alive do if a disease like Dragon Pox can kill them before Mouldy shorts ever gets the chance to try it again?”

“We’ll just have to hope they’re not going to catch anything and that they will take health precautions,” sighed Severus.

…

In the end, it was a good thing James and Lily decided to stay at the Potter Manor, because by the time Samhain rolled by, the Bones and the McKinnons were mostly killed and a number of Order members have been kidnapped, interrogated and killed after Voldemort got the information he wanted and could get from them. Luckily, Sirius wasn’t among the casualties, much to Severus’ relief.

On the day itself (31st October), Voldemort gathered his followers to hear the general report and though the Longbottoms and the Potters slipped his grasp, he was satisfied with the outcome.

Bellatrix made sure to let him know she took care of Edgar Bones and his family and had the audacity to insinuate herself. He wanted to grimace and gag at her pathetic and downright distasteful attempts at seduction. As if he would ever touch her, much less let her grace his bed in an intimate way. His bed was for him and him alone. He didn’t do sex or emotions. There was neither any need nor any desire for it on his part.

Therefore, to avoid being accosted by her, he decided to get rid of her. His own peace and quiet were more valuable and important to him than losing one of his followers, who, quite frankly, was becoming a liability to him. She had served her purpose for a while, but now it was time for her to go … like everyone who dared propose or demand sexual favours from him.

She made it easier for him by staying behind after everyone else had left the room. He invited her to his room, promising to reward her hard work. When she arrived, he told her to lie on his bed, her arms against the headboard.

She eagerly obeyed. In the meantime, he put on a pair of black leather gloves and smirked wickedly, already imagining the look of shock and helplessness on her face once he got to the good part of his ‘reward’.

He approached the bed, took out his wand and two black ropes shot out, wrapping themselves around her wrists and pinning them to the headboard. She moaned, biting her lower lip, her eyes filled with desire.

He wanted to shudder. Instead, he smirked, and asked her, “Now, Bella, are you ready to receive your reward for your hard work?”

“Oh, yes, my Lord,” she whispered wantonly. “I’m ready.”

He straddled her and leaned forward slowly as if to kiss her. She wanted to meet him halfway and she arched her back off the bed, but he simply covered her mouth and nose with his gloved hand and tsked. “Don’t get impatient; otherwise I won’t give you what you want.”

She whimpered, but complied.

“Good girl,” he praised and reached under the pillow next to her head with his free hand and pulled out a knife and stabbed her in the side. Her eyes widened in shock and horror as she realised, he was going to kill her. He kept his gloved hand over her mouth and nose, cutting off her air supply as well.

“Poor Bella,” he mocked her, “did you really think I would ever have sex with you when the mere idea of touching you produces aversion in me?” He plunged the blade into her flesh again, twisting. His hand muffled her voice. “Why else do you think I’m using gloves right now?” He stabbed her again. “It’s so that I don’t have to touch your skin directly,” he whispered gleefully.

When he stabbed her next, he sliced her stomach open, until her insides spilt all over the bed, blood pooling on the sheets. He carefully gutted her and once her intestines were on full display, he proceeded to cut open her chest, where he had to break through her ribs to get to the heart and lungs.

Letting out a sigh, he called for his house elf, who immediately popped inside his room.

“Yes, Master?”

“Take these internal organs and freeze them for later,” instructed Voldemort.

“Does Phobos put it as human or animal food?”

Voldemort thought for a bit. As much as he was tempted to trick his followers into eating human flesh, he knew Nagini would appreciate the intestines and other internal organs more. “Put it as animal food.”

The elf nodded and proceeded to collect the intestines, making room for Voldemort to cut Bellatrix’s corpse, or what remained of it anyway, into manageable pieces so that when Nagini wanted to eat, she wouldn’t have to worry about swallowing an entire human female, but rather parts of her.

It took him a while to cut her up, but he felt at peace cutting through skin, flesh and bone, dismembering her, beheading her. As he worked, his elf Phobos was helping him take care of the pieces.

When he finished, he took off his gloves and said to the elf, “I’m going to take a bath right now. In the meantime, clean up the mess. I want a clean bed when I return.”

Phobos nodded, bowed, and retreated with the last piece of meat.

…

At the beginning of November, Sirius sent Severus a text saying James’ parents have passed away and both Lily and James decided to stay at the manor. As much as it was a tragic event, both Severus and Sirius sighed in relief because that meant that James was in mourning and less likely to return to the battlefield.

By the end of November, Sirius sent Severus another text, this time asking to meet because he had news.

They decided to meet at some muggle café on December 2nd and found a corner where they would have some privacy to talk. As they ordered their coffees, Severus said, “So, what news do you have?” in a soft tone, when he saw the grave look on Sirius’ face.

“Lily is pregnant,” he said grimly.

“We knew she would get pregnant around this time, why the sour face?”

Sirius sighed. “Because I guess I was hoping she wasn’t going to get pregnant at the end of October with a scheduled date of labour on July 31st, and that their baby would not be eligible for that stupid prophecy,” said Sirius dejectedly.

“Are they still staying at the manor?”

“Yes, they are, though when both James and Lily and Frank and Alice informed the remaining Order about the babies, Dumbledore insisted it was not a good hiding place since Mouldy shorts can get to them with ease,” grimaced Sirius.

Their orders arrived and they waited for the waiter to leave them alone, before resuming their conversation.

“I suppose Potter Manor is well-known, but still it has ancient and powerful wards and safety nets should someone attack the residence and its residents,” elaborated Sirius. “Luckily, both were sceptical about Dumbledore’s insistence to change locations and after months of knowing about the prophecy, he finally told the Order about it.”

Sirius huffed derisively.

“You should have seen how Moody and some of the others jumped at the idea of a prophecy child able to defeat Mouldy shorts and the only thing that bothered them was that Dumbledore didn’t tell them sooner. Luckily, neither James and Lily nor Frank and Alice were thrilled to hear their babies could be the prophecy child and while they agreed to go into hiding, they decided to remain where they lived.”

“Well, then let us hope they manage to remain strong in their conviction despite You-Know-Who’s attempts to find and kill them by the end of the year and Dumbledore’s attempts to use those attempts to convince them to do as he says,” whispered Severus, before taking a sip of his coffee.

…

_9 January 1990_

“Hey, Snape,” greeted Sirius excitedly.

Severus frowned. Why was Black so happy? More importantly, what was so urgent for Black to tell him that he was adamant about meeting today?

“Did something happen?”

Black blinked in confusion a few times. “Uh … not that I know of,” he said carefully.

“Then what was the urgency to meet today?”

“Oh, that,” he breathed in understanding. “Well, I have something to give you,” said Black enigmatically, grinning mischievously. Severus frowned. “… A present.”

Severus’ eyes widened. “… A present?” he repeated, not sure what to think of it.

“Yeah,” nodded Sirius excitedly. “I mean, isn’t today your birthday?”

Severus was speechless … Black knew about his birthday … somehow. Now, he wanted to give him a birthday present it would seem.

“Yes,” he said stiffly, “Yes, it is. Though I’m not sure I want whatever birthday present you have for me,” he said cautiously.

“Don’t be like that, Snape, I’m sure you’ll like it,” assured him Sirius, smiling. Severus unfortunately remained sceptical about it.

“Right, happy birthday, Snape,” said Sirius, remembering he hadn’t wished him that yet, and extended his arm towards the young Potions Master.

Eyeing the extended hand with suspicion, Severus reluctantly shook hands with Black. He expected a prank, but when it didn’t come and instead Black’s fingers gently wrapped and squeezed around his hand, he felt weirdly nervous with something fluttering in his stomach and his heart beating faster in his chest.

“Thank you,” he whispered. He looked at Black’s face and saw a gentle and serene expression.

“You’re welcome,” said Black with a smile and Severus quickly averted his gaze.

Their handshake lasted more than it was necessary and proper and he could have sworn Black was rubbing his thumb gently over the back of his hand.

Before he started reading too much into Black’s strange behaviour, he withdrew his hand from his and cleared his throat. “And … what’s the present?”

Sirius smirked, “Uh-uh, not yet, Snape. First, we need to go eat and drink something to celebrate it. Do you want an actual lunch at a restaurant or a piece of cake and a cup of coffee at a café?”

Severus couldn’t believe his ears. Black was inviting him to a restaurant or a café to celebrate his birthday. This sounded too good to be true.

“And what’s the catch behind it, Black?”

He looked genuinely confused. “What catch? There’s no catch, Snape. Is it really so hard to believe I genuinely want to invite you somewhere for your birthday?”

“Yes. After years of torment at your and James’ hands, you can’t blame me for being sceptical about your invitation and intentions behind it.”

Sirius sighed. “Look … I’m sorry for how I behaved towards you … how I treated you. I was an ass. But these past several months I’ve been thinking … a lot.”

“That must have hurt your brain,” commented Severus sarcastically.

“Most definitely,” smirked Sirius.

“You should see a healer then.”

“Nah, I’m good. I’ll live … Anyway,” he said with a serious expression, “what I want to say is that I don’t hate you nor dislike you like I did … or at least I thought I did.”

“I thought you didn’t want to be friends, only temporary accomplices,” Severus reminded him. “You said so yourself, or did you already forget?”

“No, I didn’t forget,” he said, “I’m just going against my own words, that’s all.”

Severus snorted, baffled, and shook his head in disbelief, but Black insisted.

“So, Snape? What will it be? A restaurant or a café?”

He should probably say ‘neither’ and leave Black hanging, present be damned, because he didn’t need anything from Black, but after noticing uncertainty disguised as charm and bravado, he decided to accept the invitation … if only to humour him and get free food and drink … and a present. He could always throw it away later if he found it insulting.

He sighed. “Fine, Black, you win. I accept your invitation to the restaurant.”

Sirius smiled brightly, his entire face lit up like a candle, and Severus could have sworn there were dog-ears sticking out of Black’s head and a dog tail, wagging happily behind his back.

As they were eating their dessert, Black finally gave him his present. It was a sealed envelope. He looked at it, frowning. Carefully, he opened it and took out two pieces of paper. One was a congratulatory note and the other was a photo with Lily, smiling brightly, surrounded by the Marauders.

…

Sirius pulled another similar stunt on Valentine’s Day. This time, they went to a café.

“Did it have to be Valentine’s Day?” deadpanned Severus. “You could have picked any other day to give me photos, but no, you picked Valentine’s Day.”

Sirius shrugged. “What can I say? It felt appropriate. But if you don’t want Lily’s photos, I can keep them instead.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t want them.”

Sirius smirked. He pulled out a box of chocolates together with another envelope. Severus ignored the chocolates and went straight for the envelope. This time there were three photos.

The first one had Lily taking a nap on the sofa with a book in her lap. In the second photo, there was Lily standing sideways with her sweater pulled up and proudly showing her small baby bump to the camera … and in the third one … there was Sirius taking a selfie with a piece sign, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth and winking at the camera.

Severus flipped the selfie over to Sirius. “This isn’t Lily,” he said blankly.

“Well, since you said we might not see each other as often because you think Mouldy shorts is starting to suspect something, I wanted you to have something to look at whenever you want to see my handsome features,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Severus grimaced. “Are you flirting with me, Black?”

He shrugged. “Maybe.” Then, his intense eyes looked straight into his and he said, “Does it bother you?”

Severus wasn’t sure. “I don’t know,” he admitted.

Sirius smiled, relieved. “As long as you don’t hate it, I think I can deal with that kind of answer.”

…

They didn’t meet up until several days after Lily had given birth to a baby girl, but that didn’t mean they didn’t stay in contact with one another.

Sirius kept him up-to-date with Lily’s pregnancy through texts, which were always sprinkled with some corny flirtatious remark, and when she gave birth, he wanted them to meet so he could show him pictures of the baby and coo about his preciously adorable goddaughter.

Unlike other times, this time, they met in a muggle park, where they sat on an empty bench surrounded by bushes, trees and wild flowers.

“Look at her,” breathed Sirius, smiling from ear to ear and leaning against Severus’ shoulder, while holding a photo of Lily, holding his sleeping goddaughter. “Isn’t she the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen?”

“She is,” agreed Severus, a soft smile on his lips. “You still haven’t told me what her name is.”

“Adriana,” said Sirius, looking at Severus, still grinning. “Adriana Potter, but I call her Adri. She’s twenty inches long and she weighs six pounds, eight ounces.”

He showed him more photos. There was one with James carrying Adriana, another with Peter Pettigrew holding her, another with Remus Lupin and another with Sirius holding her, looking like he would burst of happiness. The final photo he had to show him had baby Adriana, sleeping peacefully in her cot surrounded by plush toys: a wolf, a rat, a black dog, a stag, and a bat.

“These plush animals represent our animagus forms,” explained Sirius.

“I figured,” retorted Severus, “but the bat seems out of place. Don’t tell me that’s Lily’s animagus form,” said Severus, horrified.

Sirius chuckled. “No, the bat doesn’t represent her,” he assured him. He looked at him with a gentle smile and a soft look. “It represents you.”

Severus gaped at Sirius. “… Me?”

“Yeah. I thought since you’ve been putting so much effort into protecting her from the shadows, she should have something that would represent you close to her.”

Severus felt oddly moved, but simply averted his gaze and looked at the picture again. He blinked away the tears that threatened to gather and spill over.

“Why a bat?” he managed to get out, after clearing his throat.

Sirius shrugged. “It felt appropriate with how you like to keep to the shadows and you constantly wear black even in summer, besides,” he leaned forward to whisper into Severus’ ear, “… the plush looks cute, a little grumpy … but cute.”

Severus whipped his head in Black’s direction, stunned. Their faces were so close; they could feel each other’s breaths gliding across the skin. Sirius’ eyes darted to Severus’ lips. He swallowed hard and licked his lips.

He was dying to kiss Severus, but he wasn’t sure if he would let him do it and he wasn’t sure if his heart could handle a rejection right now, so instead, he averted his eyes back to the photo and cleared his throat.

“Anyway,” he said hoarsely, “She’s really quiet. The only time she starts fussing is when she needs a diaper change or when she’s hungry, but otherwise she’s super quiet. And she sleeps a lot too. Lily and James say it’s a blessing during the night.”

He chuckled to cover up the fact he was rambling.

Heavy silence stretched between them, until Sirius broke it. “I wish you could see her in person,” he said suddenly. “Maybe I could sneak you in with James’ Cloak of Invisibility.”

Severus shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Sirius,” he said softly. “Maybe once the danger passes, but for now, pictures of her and knowing she’s alive and well are more than enough.”

…

While August proved to be a relatively quiet month, in September all hell broke loose.

It was true that, after the New Year, Voldemort had doubled his effort to hunt down the Longbottoms and the Potters, but even then, both couples managed to evade him and his followers, mostly thanks to Severus informing Sirius of incoming raids and attacks, until September 1990.

Somehow, the wards around the Potter Manor disappeared and Voldemort with at least a dozen Death Eaters invaded the Manor, while he sent another dozen to where the Longbottoms were hiding.

Fortunately, James and Lily had managed to evacuate the Manor through a secret passageway underground as soon as they felt the wards disappear and escaped to the Potter Cottage in Godric’s Hollow.

Unfortunately, the Longbottoms weren’t as lucky. Frank, Alice and baby Neville have all perished, killed by Death Eaters.

With their home compromised, they accepted Dumbledore’s offer to stay in Godric’s Hollow under the Fidelius Charm.

James wanted to entrust the role of the Secret Keeper to Sirius, but Dumbledore thought it was too obvious and advised against it. Sirius didn’t like admitting it, but he had to agree with the man. When Dumbledore suggested they use Peter as the Secret Keeper instead, given his animagus form as well as relative anonymity, Sirius begrudgingly accepted the suggestion, even though in his mind Severus would have been a much better option.

A month later, he regretted not accepting the role and passing it to Severus behind everyone’s back.

…

_31 October 1990_

There was a knock on the door.

“Enter,” said Voldemort. The door to his office opened and Barty entered.

“My Lord,” he began, “Rodolphus, Rabastan and I have managed to capture the Secret Keeper for the Potters.”

Voldemort felt elated. Finally! After a little over a year of chasing after those two and their brat, the day to kill them and prevent the prophecy from happening has arrived. “Bring them in,” he instructed, struggling to keep his eagerness out of his voice.

Barty nodded and disappeared, only to reappear with the Lestrange brothers and a chubby young man, restrained and gagged.

“Rodolphus, Rabastan, Barty,” he said softly, “that’s no way to treat an important guest. Please, release this young man immediately.”

They did as told. Voldemort kept smiling politely at the guest. “I hope they weren’t too rough with you, they’re still young, and so they tend to be a bit more eager than slightly older ones.” He spoke in a soothing tone.

With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the other three. “Leave us,” he said. They bowed and obeyed. Voldemort turned to Pettigrew. “Please, sit,” he said, gesturing towards the chair opposite his behind the desk.

Pettigrew gulped nervously, but otherwise obeyed. Voldemort sat down as well. “May I offer you a cup of tea?”

“I w-wouldn’t w-want to inconvenience you,” he stammered.

“Nonsense,” said Voldemort dismissively. “Besides, I insist.” Not even waiting for a reply, he summoned Phobos and ordered two cups of tea. After the house elf disappeared, he spoke to the man again.

“I hear you hold a very important role, Mr. Pettigrew,” he said in a silky voice, “My followers tell me you are the Secret-Keeper for the Potters. You must be on _very_ good terms for them to trust you with such delicate information as their hiding location.”

“I-I’m not g-going to t-tell you where t-they are,” stuttered Peter, sweat drops covering his forehead.

“You are in your right to refuse to share that information if you don’t want to,” said Voldemort simply, “I know I can’t obtain the information through Legilimency or Veritaserum and there’s no guarantee torturing you will make you succumb either,” Peter swallowed nervously, “though you do seem like the type who doesn’t tolerate pain all too well.”

“Please, don’t hurt me. Don’t kill me. I don’t want to die,” pleaded Peter.

“Who said anything about hurting or killing you?” wondered Voldemort in mock confusion. “I’m simply saying I don’t intend to use force to obtain the information I seek. You will reveal it on your own. That is all.”

“But I don’t want to tell you what you want to know,” said Pettigrew in a subdued voice.

Voldemort regarded him with a thoughtful expression, staring into his eyes. He was quiet for quite a while, until Phobos arrived with the tea. When they were alone again, Voldemort stood up and began pacing towards Peter.

“Mr. Pettigrew, surely you know this war is at its endgame, don’t you?” His voice was smooth and calm.

Peter swallowed again and nodded.

“I also hope you are aware the winner has already been decided, it’s only a matter of hours, maybe days, depends on how long it will take you to reveal the location of the Potters, until every last Order member is killed.”

He stopped behind Pettigrew and leaned forward, with his hands joined behind his back, so his face was next to his.

“If you reveal where the Potters are hiding with their child, you would be contributing greatly to my cause. You could be a hero in the world of my creation. In fact, I would go as far as to build a statue of you in your honour and give you your own national holiday. Just imagine: Peter Pettigrew’s Day and _all_ the festivities that would come along with it; people on the street showering you with attention and praise; people naming their children after their national hero, the medals of honour …”

As soon as he saw the dreamy and starry-eyed expression on Pettigrew’s face, Voldemort knew he had won. He smirked wickedly and straightened himself.

“So … _Peter_ … what is more important to you? Your selfish friends who _dared_ put such a heavy burden on you and put you at risk for torture, or your own well-being and doing something useful with the information they have entrusted you?”

Peter opened his mouth, but words were stuck in his throat.

“Remember, Peter, there is nothing wrong with looking out for yourself … because, if you won’t, who else will? Certainly not James or Lily … not even Sirius Black or Remus Lupin.”

There was bitterness on Peter’s face. Voldemort kept grinning maniacally. Any moment now …

Pettigrew took a deep breath and said, “Okay … I’ll tell you where James and Lily are hiding.”

While he waited for Pettigrew to spill the information, Voldemort took out his black leather gloves and put them on.

“They’re hiding in Godric’s Hollow, at the Potter Cottage.”

‘Checkmate,’ thought Voldemort with glee and he slowly took out his knife.

Before Pettigrew could turn and face him, Voldemort slit his throat in one swift movement. Then, he walked to his desk, took out an empty inkbottle and began collecting the blood that was flowing out of Pettigrew’s neck.

After all, he needed to write a letter for one Severus Snape and one Sirius Black and ordinary ink just wouldn’t do. Once he finished writing his message, he waited for the blood to dry, before calling on his elf again to give him instructions.

“What does Master want Phobos to do?”

“I’ll be going in a minute to take care of some business and I want you to deliver this corpse with this note to one Sirius Black at least ten minutes after I’m gone.” He was about to leave, when he remembered something else. “Oh, and make sure no one can get inside the office after I leave right now.”

“Yes, Master,” nodded the elf.

He left his office and walked towards the front door, humming eerily to himself.

…

As soon as Severus learnt from the Lestrange brothers and Barty they have captured Pettigrew, he wrote a text to Sirius. By the time, Sirius answered and he began typing a reply, the door to the Dark Lord’s office opened and through them walked an uncharacteristically happy Voldemort.

Forgetting about the text, he went to open the office, but the door was locked. ‘Shit!’ he cursed mentally and simply decided to ask for Sirius’ address so he could apparate … they needed to take action immediately, before it was too late.

Less than five minutes after they’ve met up, Phobos interrupted their conversation.

Sirius and Severus stared transfixed at Pettigrew’s corpse.

“Peter?” breathed Sirius shakily. “He killed Peter.” He carded his trembling fingers through his hair, his breath growing more agitated by the second. Severus reached for the note, lying on top of the body and froze.

“He knows,” he breathed, horrified.

Sirius looked up at him. “What?”

“The Dark Lord knows where James and Lily are, and he also knows about us, meddling and meeting behind his back,” said Severus with terror.

Sirius took the note into his hands and read:

_To Sirius Black,_

_By the time you read this letter, this is the state in which you will be able to find your friend, his Mudblood wife and daughter at the Potter Cottage in Godric’s Hollow._

_Your friend Peter proved to be very co-operative._

_As for you and Severus Snape, you will soon join Pettigrew and the Potters._

_With Kind Regards,_

_Lord Voldemort_

As he arrived at the end of the letter, Sirius crumpled it and threw it at Peter’s corpse. Then, he grabbed Severus by the arm and apparated them to Godric’s Hollow.

They hurried to the Potter Cottage and as it came into view, a green explosion went off inside the house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: We'll look at Lily's perspective of certain events and her quest to protect her child. 😊


	3. One-Time Demonic Protection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily's quest for the ultimate protection against Voldemort.

They didn’t plan it. In fact, they were doing everything they could to avoid and prevent it from happening.  It’s not that they didn’t want to have children eventually, but bringing and trying to raise a child in the middle of war is something they never wanted to do.

Yet it happened. The thing they were trying so desperately to avoid happened … Because of one slip up due to the circumstances.

Seeing his parents bedridden, their skin a greenish tint and covered in bumps, coughing and sneezing sparks, had really taken a toll on James. He was doing his best to cure them, but even with regular doses of dragon pox cure, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter were not getting better.

As days turned into weeks, deep down James knew his parents were going to die. He didn’t want to accept it, but he felt it and probably his parents did too. By the end of October, even the healers were giving them a couple of days at most.

Being told his parents could die any minute or knowing he could wake up the following morning and find them dead in their sleep, devastated her husband. He had trouble sleeping through the night without waking up agitated from a nightmare in which his parents were already dead.

It broke her heart to see the usually obnoxiously cheerful and arrogant James like this. Therefore, she did what any good wife would have done. She kissed and cuddled him when he woke up in the middle of the night at the end of October, and they ended up making love and they didn’t think about anything else but feeling each other, seeking comfort in the tough times. Using protection was the farthest thing from their mind at that time.

A month later, they found out she was expecting and it couldn’t have been a more terrifying and ecstatic moment of their lives. They knew they wouldn’t abort it despite how inconvenient the timing of the entire pregnancy was, but it also meant that they would stay out of combat for quite a while longer.

It’s not like she minded terribly, after having come close to death more times than she would have liked. She wasn’t so sure about James, but he was still in somewhat of a mourning period, so he was fine with retiring for the time being.

When they informed Dumbledore and the rest of the Order about it, they thought it was only going to be a formality, they never expected to learn there was a prophecy that might be about their baby or Alice and Frank’s baby causing the downfall of the Dark Lord.

She might want to get rid of the Dark Lord as much as anyone else who was fighting against him, but she would never use her child for that and she let Dumbledore know that. He might be in charge and they might fight on the same side, but she would never allow him to use her baby as a means to an end.

Thankfully, James thought so too. Because if he had agreed with Dumbledore to train their baby when it was going to be barely old enough to walk and talk in how to kill the Dark Lord, they would have had a serious problem.

They also remained determined to stay at the manor, mostly because James wanted to honour his parents’ will to live there with his family, surround himself in pleasant childhood memories and talk with his parents’ portraits … but the manor was also old and it was well-warded against possible Death Eater attacks.

Should the manor defences fail at any point, they had an escape route underground through one of the many secret passageways that lead outside the manor and they would take refuge at the Potter Cottage in Godric’s Hollow and only then they would accept Dumbledore’s offer to go under Fidelius Charm.

In the meantime, as the child developed inside her, Lily spent most of her time reading in the Potter Library, searching for either a ritual, a potion or a spell that would work against the Killing Curse or any spell meant to harm and kill someone. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to find anything useful, even after months of skimming through hundreds, probably thousands of tomes.

Many in her place would have already given up, discouraged by the failure. But there was a reason she was placed in Gryffindor. She was stubborn and determined, now more than ever. If she was not going to find what she needed in the Light Magic books to protect her family, she was willing to read Dark Arts books. However, there was a problem. Two, actually.

One, she couldn’t leave the Potter Estate borders, because that’s where the wards ended, and doing otherwise would put her and her baby at unnecessary risk. And two, she had to make sure no one knew about the Dark books at the manor, she really didn’t want to imagine James’ reaction if he knew she was even considering consulting Dark Magic for protection.

So, she convinced her husband to let her invite her friend Marlene over, saying, “If your friends can visit you whenever they want, I can receive visits from my friend as well.” During one of the visits, after James left them to their ‘Lady Talk’, she told her about her situation.

“Marlene, I don’t know what else to do. I’ve scoured the entire library here at the manor and I’ve come up with absolutely nothing.”

“Well, Lily,” she sighed, her face contorted in an apologetic grimace, “I don’t know if I can help you. I mean I’m not exactly knowledgeable about Magic literature.”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine if you don’t know much,” Lily assured her. “Once you get me some of the books I’m going to tell you, I will do the research and reading part myself.”

“Oh, okay,” said Marlene in an upbeat manner. “If it’s to bring you books, sure, I can do that. How hard is it to walk into a bookstore and look for specific books from a booklist? Just give me the list and I’ll try to have all the books as soon as possible.”

“I don’t have a list,” admitted Lily.

“What do you mean you don’t have a list?” asked Marlene, confused.

“Because I don’t know many Dark Magic books to begin with,” hissed Lily, exasperated.

Marlene almost choked on her saliva. She coughed a few times. “Dark Magic?” she asked, scandalised. “You want me to walk into Flourish & Blotts and be like, ‘uh, yes, can you give me, like, every book on Dark Magic in your shop?’ when there is a bloody war happening as we speak?”

“Sh,” hissed Lily, pressing her index to her lips, looking apprehensively at the door, hoping James didn’t hear Marlene’s outburst. “Not so loud. And yes, I want you to do exactly that or, if you dare, going to some shady bookstore on Knockturn Alley would do just as well.”

Marlene grimaced in clear aversion to take on the important task.

Lily sighed. “Look, I know I’m asking you a lot. I know I’m asking you to risk your hide for me, but you are my only hope of finding a solution, of finding the form of protection I desperately need right now. If you do this, I’ll be forever in your debt.”

Marlene still didn’t like the task, but she relented and accepted to undertake it. “Fine, I’ll do it,” she sighed in defeat. “But only if all the money for the books comes from you, because it’s not going to be cheap.”

Lily smiled, relieved, her hope renewed.

Two days later, Marlene came to ‘visit’ again to check up on Lily and the baby. She brought a gift if only to cover up the fact she was also smuggling a few dozen tomes on all sorts of Dark Magic.

“That’s what I could find,” she informed her. “It has all sorts of things. Who would have thought Dark Magic had so many different branches? Anyway, I hope at least one book will help you, because otherwise … we better not even think or speak about it so that we do not jinx it.”

Lily hugged her. “Thank you, Marlene. I’ll never forget this.”

She charmed all the covers of the Dark books to look like muggle romance novels, so if anyone asked what she was reading, she could simply show them the shirtless macho man to make people desist in their inquiry.

The first few books had nothing helpful to offer and before she could continue with her investigation, she entered into labour.

Seeing and holding her baby Adriana gave her strength to continue, until she had found a way to ensure her survival should disaster strike them. And she found it. A few days before the Death Eaters attacked and successfully managed to penetrate the wards.

It involved Demons and human sacrifice. Apparently, she could summon a demon using a rune circle provided by the book, ask him for any kind of one-time favour and let him suck out her soul to seal the deal.

At first, she wasn’t sure if she could go through with it. If she let a demon suck her soul, she would never reunite with James in the afterlife when his time came nor would her soul be able to reincarnate. She would be leaving her daughter behind, helpless and defenceless once the one-time protection had done its job.

However, when their sanctuary at Potter Manor was compromised only two months after Adriana was born, Lily decided she would do the summoning ritual, but only as the last resort. She would only use it if James, God forbid, died before her and she found herself in a dead alley with no other escape route.

She desperately hoped the Potter Cottage under Fidelius would be enough to last them until the end of the war, but it wasn’t. They barely lasted a month, before the Dark Lord came knocking on their door on Hallowe’en as some sick trick-or-treat joke.

It was probably partially their fault for not having wands on their person, but they had just decided to rest on the sofa in the living room for a bit after tucking Adriana in her cot for the night. They nodded off cuddled into one another, when the knock came.

Still sleepy, James got up, thinking it was one of his friends, but instead of Sirius, Peter or Remus stood Lord Voldemort in person, wearing a sinister smirk and twirling his yew wand.

“Lily, it’s him! Go to Adriana, I’ll try to hold him off!” shouted James frantically.

She obeyed him, but she couldn’t help but wonder how he would be able to hold off the Dark Lord barehanded.

She raced upstairs, while James remained downstairs. Voldemort was simply amused.

Locking the door behind her and moving a few pieces of furniture to block it and buy some time, she took out the book with the summoning circle, cut open her palm and began dripping blood onto the symbols while reciting the summoning chant.

She was vaguely aware of slow and eerie footsteps coming up the stairs, but she couldn’t let this break her focus. When she felt Voldemort was right outside the nursery door, she finished her chant and she would have sworn the time itself froze still as the summoning circle shined with blinding light and an entity slowly began rising from the middle.

She held her breath as the horned, pointy-eared, cat-pupiled, amber-eyed, fanged, clawed, yet very humanoid demon took form before her eyes. He took a deep breath and had a good look around his surroundings until his piercing eyes noticed her.

“I need your help,” said Lily firmly.

“I figured,” he said, aloof.

“There is someone standing right outside this door, ready to kill me and my daughter and I need you to protect her from anything that man will cast at her … can you do that?”

The demon looked at the crib to look at the child he was to protect. He looked at Lily again. “You do realise it’s a one-time thing only?”

“Yes,” she said dryly, “I’ve read the terms of service before summoning you.”

He grinned wickedly. “Oh, then you’re also aware of what I require to complete the transaction?”

“Yes. You will have my soul, after you agree to protect my daughter’s life tonight.”

“I can do that,” grinned the demon. “Do you want to complete the transaction now, or do you have any last words for your daughter before I eat your soul?”

Lily looked at the cot and found it hard to breathe, swallow and find words. “… Give me a moment with her,” she finally got out. She approached the cot and caressed her daughter’s cheek.

“I’m sorry for leaving you, my darling,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes, “but I’m afraid this is the only way I can save you. Neither your father nor I will be able to be there for you when you will need it the most, but I hope that your ridiculous godfather Sirius will offer you love and comfort in our stead.” She sniffed. “I hope you won’t have to suffer or endure hardship, but if you do, don’t give up. If you fall, get back up and overcome the hurdle. If there is no other way, fight your way through it by any means necessary … but most importantly, I want you to live. No matter how hard, ugly, or unbearable it might get, live.”

She kissed her forehead lovingly. She took a few deep, shaky breaths, before steeling herself and turning to the demon, who looked bored, inspecting his long, pointy fingernails.

“Done?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she nodded.

The demon’s lips split into a wicked grin and he approached her slowly, as if doing his best to prolong her dread. She was shaking and her stomach was twisting in her gut, but she remained firm, blinking away the tears. She had to resist the urge to flinch away, when the demon cupped her face and approached her lips with his.

“Open wide, Mortal,” he instructed and she had to close her eyes.

She did as told and opened her mouth. Their lips didn’t touch, but they didn’t have to for the demon to suck out her soul. It was a painful and lengthy process, where she felt every bit of her life energy leaving her body. It felt like slowly being ripped apart from the inside and her insides being forced out of her through the mouth.

Once the transaction was complete and the demon had sucked every bit of Lily’s soul and life force, her body crumpled to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

The demon licked his lips and let out a sound of delight at the exquisite taste of a vibrant soul full of life. It’s not like he needed to consume souls of naïve and desperate humans, but they were usually tasty and he didn’t see a reason not to indulge in a soul every so often, when someone stumbled upon his summoning circle and went through the process of summoning him.

He walked to the cot, made himself invisible to the human eye and waited to do his job. The time began moving again and after failing to open the blocked door, the human male forced his way by blasting it.

When Voldemort entered the nursery, he was surprised to see the woman lying on the floor, motionless and apparently lifeless as well. He cast Enervate, but there was no reaction. Did the blast from the Bombarda kill her when he blasted the door off its hinges? Not that it mattered, he would have killed her anyway directly or indirectly.

His eyes landed on the cot. He approached it. As he peered inside, he saw a baby girl sleeping soundly in her cot, even after he blasted the door open. He narrowed his eyes. The audacity of the little menace. How dares she sleep so peacefully through this?

He lifted his wand and pointed it at her. Just as he muttered the Killing Curse and the tip of his wand shone bright green, something unpredictable and otherworldly happened. The curse didn’t reach the baby; it stopped just half an inch away from her. Instead, the curse swirled and formed into a tall humanoid form with demonic features and it rushed back at him, hitting him straight in the chest and creating a bright green explosion. An instant later, his body was crumpling lifeless to the floor, rapidly turning to dust, and his ‘soul’ was floating, formless.

Everything happened so fast that Voldemort struggled to comprehend what had just happened. Did the brat do that? No, it couldn’t be. How could a three-month-old brat be able to achieve something like that … while sleeping? It must have been something else, but what? Definitely something that Mudblood did.

As he heard people downstairs and the brat began crying hysterically, after a piece of debris had wounded her forehead, he left the house through a broken window, not noticing half of his current soul had chipped off in the process and taken refuge in the brat’s wound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure how this method of protection is going to be received, but I thought it would be interesting so I went with it. Also, Marlene in this chapter is not Marlene McKinnon, she's just a woman with the same first name.
> 
> Thank you for the support and I hope you liked the chapter! 🤗


	4. Escaping Azkaban

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius and Severus find James and Lily dead, but they have no time to really mourn them. Adriana needs them level-headed and strong, but Dumbledore is doing his best to separate them by imprisoning them and placing Adriana with Petunia. Luckily, neither Sirius nor Severus plan to stay in Azkaban for long.

Sirius and Severus raced to the cottage only to stop dead in their tracks as they saw James cut in half with his insides hanging out in a pool of his own blood.

“James?” breathed Sirius, dumbfounded and horrified by the sight in front of him. His knees gave in and he crumpled to the floor, clutching his mouth, while tears flowed freely down his cheeks. “He cut him in half, Severus. He cut him in half.”

They heard Adriana’s cries coming from upstairs and they hurried to the nursery. Severus’ hopes to see Lily with life were crushed when his gaze fell upon her lifeless form. Just like Sirius before him, he fell to his knees and cried openly over his former friend’s body.

In the meantime, Sirius approached the cot and took Adriana in his arms, trying to comfort her. “Sh, it’s okay, Adri, your godfather Siri has you,” he whispered, pressing his lips to her hair and cupping her head, slowly rocking her, but she continued to cry.

He noticed she had a wound on her forehead. A wound in the shape of a lightning. He took out his wand and tried to heal it, but while it stopped bleeding, the wound left behind a pale scar of the same shape. At least it served to ease Adriana’s pain and discomfort, because she stopped crying and she resumed her sleep, clutched firmly and safely in her godfather’s arms.

For a while, neither Sirius nor Severus spoke a word. Each in their own little bubble of grief.

“It was all for naught,” rasped Sirius, breaking the heavy silence. “All our efforts rendered useless … All because of Peter. I swear if he wasn’t already dead I would have killed him with my bare hands for what he did,” he snarled through his clenched teeth, tears in eyes. “We trusted him.” He sighed helplessly. “I never should have agreed to Dumbledore’s suggestion to make Peter the Secret-Keeper. I should have taken up that role. I would have died before revealing the location.”

He gasped as if realising something. “Severus,” he turned to him with wide and wild eyes, “what if Dumbledore suggested we use Peter for this exact reason? What if Dumbledore planned for this to happen? Maybe he even led the Death Eaters to Peter or Peter to the Death Eaters. Both James and Lily refused to involve and use Adri in the war. What if he got rid of them just to get his hands on Adri?”

He brought Adriana closer to his chest in a protective gesture.

“Even if he is the one behind Peter’s betrayal and orchestrating this entire thing, how do you suppose we prove his guilt?” reasoned Severus. “We have nothing but our suspicions. We won’t be able to do much with suspicions and no solid evidence.”

Sirius sighed in defeat. “What are we going to do now, Severus? What _should_ we do?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But we can’t stay here. If someone comes and finds us here, they might think we killed Lily and James.”

Sirius nodded. They left the nursery and went downstairs. As they were coming down the corridor, they heard Hagrid’s voice. “Sirius? Severus? What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same thing of you, Hagrid,” commented Sirius, filled with suspicion, shielding Adriana from view. “Why are you here?”

“I came to check up on James and Lily and baby Adriana. Dumbledore asked me, you know. He said he had a bad feeling about tonight and he wanted to make sure they were safe,” said Hagrid, only to sniffle a second later. “I can’t believe James is dead and cut in half. What of Lily and baby Adriana?”

“Lily is dead,” said Sirius blankly. “Adriana’s state doesn’t concern you.”

“She survived?” asked Hagrid in wonder, looking at the bundle in Sirius’ arms. “How? What of You-Know-Who?”

“I don’t have a bloody idea and I thought I said Adriana’s state does not concern you or Dumbledore for that matter,” he snarled, glaring at the half-giant.

“If baby Adriana is alive then I have strict order by Dumbledore to bring her to him so he can place her under protection immediately,” said Hagrid, taking a step closer.

Sirius took a step back, while Severus stepped in front of him, his wand in hand, pointing it at Hagrid.

“You’re not taking Adriana to Dumbledore or to anyone else,” hissed Sirius venomously. “She’s staying with me. I’m her godfather and the first in line to take care of her should James and Lily be unable to do it.”

“Dumbledore said there’s someone else who can take care of baby Adriana,” argued Hagrid.

“Who?”

“Lily’s sister.”

“Her?” said Severus incredulously. “She’s a muggle who hates magic and Dumbledore thinks she’s fit to raise a magical child? The only thing she will do is make the child miserable, mistreat her and call her a freak.”

“She’s Adriana’s aunt. Dumbledore says blood family is important.”

“I don’t give a fuck about what Dumbledore says or thinks,” snapped Sirius, running out of patience.

“Sirius,” said Hagrid warningly, “don’t make things more difficult.”

“The only way you and Dumbledore will be able to get to Adriana is through me and Severus and neither of us will be going down that easily,” Sirius informed him. “Because if I have to dirty my hands to protect Adriana from you and Dumbledore, then I will do so gladly.”

“You’ve gone Dark, Sirius,” said Hagrid, shaking his head disapprovingly. “I’ll have to report to Dumbledore about it and your association with Severus.”

“Go,” said Sirius, pointing his head towards the door, “tell him whatever you want. I know I haven’t done anything wrong.”

“He’s a Death Eater,” argued Hagrid. “How can you say you’ve done nothing wrong when you’re consorting with a Death Eater?”

“I don’t have to explain anything to you, Hagrid,” said Sirius bluntly. “Think whatever you want to think. I’m done with keeping up appearances for appearances’ sake. Now, move out of the way or we’ll remove you ourselves.”

Hagrid looked sternly at Sirius, but didn’t move. “This isn’t over, Sirius. Dumbledore will not be happy.”

“Move aside,” drawled Severus, still pointing his wand at Hagrid.

It seemed like an eternity, but in the end, Hagrid relented and left the Potter Cottage. Both Severus and Sirius breathed a sigh of relief.

“Where to now?” asked Severus.

“To my place, but only to pick up the letter Mouldy shorts wrote to us,” said Sirius, level-headedly. “I have no doubt, that’s where they’ll come look for us first and if they find the corpse with the note, Dumbledore just might make the letter conveniently disappear and use Peter’s corpse to frame us for murder.”

“Agreed,” said Severus, impressed with the way Sirius was thinking. “And after that?”

“After that,” breathed Sirius, “we’re going to your place to hide until we somehow manage to sneak into Gringotts and blood adopt Adri.”

“Alright, but I don’t know if it would be fine for Adriana to go through side-along apparition much less two in a row,” Severus pointed out.

“Damn!” cursed Sirius. “You’re right. Well, then you go retrieve the note at my place and then,” he took out a set of keys on a Hello Kitty keychain, “take my flying motorbike from the shed and come back here with it. We’ll use it as our means of transport.”

Severus took the keys, but he looked wary. “Sirius, I don’t know how to navigate a motorbike.”

“Don’t worry, I recently installed an autopilot feature and a map, just get the motor going with this key, choose the right destination on the map, press the button where it says ‘AUTOPILOT’ and you should be fine,” said Sirius matter-of-factly.

Severus still looked unconvinced, but apparated away. While Sirius waited for him to come back, he went back to the nursery to pick up Adriana’s cot, clothes, diapers, bottles, and toys. He wasn’t sure where they were going to find some breastmilk or baby formula, but they would think about that once they were safe at Severus’ house. Just as he was finishing minimising and packing baby things, he heard the muffled sound of his bike engine.

Hoisting the bag full of Adriana’s things on his back, he cradled his goddaughter to his chest and made his way down the stairs.

“I promise to keep her safe and happy,” he promised to both Lily and James, before leaving the cottage for good.

When he approached Severus, the Potions Master was already volunteering to carry baby things and Adriana, because he was not going to fly the bike nor let the thing fly on its own. Sirius laughed, but passed everything he was carrying to him, then mounted the bike with Severus behind and Adriana safely tucked in his arms and flew them towards Spinner’s End.

Once there, they immediately set up a temporary nursery for Adriana in Severus’ bedroom. When she was sleeping in her cot, Severus and Sirius started planning their next move.

“Did you get the note?” inquired Sirius in a whisper.

Severus reached into his inner pocket and pulled out the crumpled piece of parchment. Sirius took it into his hands.

“Good. Now, should Dumbledore come to look for us here, we have to hide it well, together with our muggle mobile phones. Because if Dumbledore finds them and destroys them, the evidence to prove our innocence in this mess goes ‘bye-bye’,” he said, wearing a serious expression. “Do you have a place where we can hide them?”

“We could hide them under some loose floorboards under a bed or something,” suggested Severus, trying to come up with as many ideas to hide the evidence. “Or in a box with a combination lock and bury it behind the house. We could even hide the evidence inside the mattress, or make a hole in a wall and then close it.”

Sirius frowned in thought. He liked all four suggestions, but which would be the most difficult to find especially if Dumbledore didn’t know what to look for in the first place.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, “I like all four, but whatever we choose, we need to make it quick.”

“Well, I think we should hide the mobiles and the note in the mattress,” said Severus.

Sirius nodded. “Okay,” he breathed, only to gasp a moment later. “Shit, what about the chargers?”

“We hide them as well, but it’s alright if we only have one since we have the same mobile type,” assured him Severus.

“Damn, this is nerve-wracking,” sighed Sirius, raking his fingers through his hair, panic squeezing his chest. “I can just feel Dumbledore coming for us with an Auror team to arrest us for kidnapping, murder or both, and taking Adri away and placing her with Lily’s horrid sister.”

“Think about that after we’ve hidden everything,” said Severus, standing up and uncovering the mattress. Sirius let out a heavy sigh, but stood up as well and helped Severus hide their mobile phones, Severus’ charger and the note at the bottom of the mattress. After that, they sewed the mattress shut and covered it with the cover again. After making sure nothing looked suspiciously out of place, they had to figure out how to feed Adriana.

“I think I have a book on nursing babies where there’s a spell that produces baby formula,” remembered Severus, immediately going towards his bookshelves to look for the book.

“A baby nursing book?” repeated Sirius, confused. “Why would you have a baby nursing book at home?”

“As part of my Potions Mastery,” began explaining Severus, “I also took healer lessons and it so happened that I had to assist a birth of a woman that later couldn’t produce breastmilk, so I had to educate myself on how to help that mother feed her child. Aha,” he exclaimed, “found it.” He started leafing through the book after consulting the contents page. Sirius stepped closer to him.

While Severus was concentrated on finding the right page and the right paragraph, Sirius used the closeness to enjoy Severus’ scent, his warmth. He was tempted to kiss his neck, his lips; bury his nose into his black shoulder-length locks; run his fingers through his hair and touch his pale skin; undress him and make love to him.

‘Oh for fuck’s sake, Sirius,’ he admonished himself, ‘your best friend and his wife have just died, Dumbledore can take away your goddaughter and you’re thinking about sex with Severus. How more fucked up can you get?’

“Here it is,” said Severus, bringing Sirius out of his thoughts. “Get me her bottle.”

Sirius summoned the bag, took out the bottle, returned it to its original size and handed it to Severus. He inserted the wand into the bottle, said the incantation for the spell and white, milk-like substance began filling the bottle. Once the bottle was full, Severus put a light Warming Charm on it to bring it to the appropriate temperature and put it under Stasis Charm so the milk remained warm until Adriana woke up.

As for diapers, luckily Severus’ book also contained advice on how to change them properly.

After feeding Adriana at around three o’clock in the morning, burping her and putting her back to sleep, Severus and Sirius were exhausted, both physically and mentally, from that day’s ordeal.

They slept in the same bed, near Adriana, trying to get some rest, but with the threat of Dumbledore appearing on their doorstep ready to get rid of them to take Adriana away looming over their heads and the image of their dead friends constantly flashing in front of their eyes, neither of them was able to sleep very well without waking up from a nightmare.

…

They barely slept a little over four hours. Fortunately, the night went okay.

While Sirius gave Adriana a bath, Severus prepared breakfast for the three of them. Fresh and clean, Sirius decided to dress Adriana in a long-sleeved pink and blue unicorn onesie.

After she was decent, he handed her to Severus so he could feed her with fresh and warm baby formula, while Sirius ate his portion of the breakfast. It wasn’t much, some omelette and sausages with a piece of bread, but to Sirius it tasted like ambrosia.

After she emptied the entire bottle, Sirius took her into his arms again to burp her, letting Severus eat his breakfast. She almost fell asleep again, but she remained awake, albeit looked extremely disinterested.

He carried her to the bedroom and placed her in the middle of the bed, then lay down beside her, his head next to hers, and began rubbing soothing circles on her tummy. A few minutes later, Severus joined him.

“Severus,” he said quietly as to not startle Adriana who had fallen asleep five minutes after he started rubbing her tummy, “does your baby nursing book also have anything on how babies develop?”

“No … why do you ask?”

“As much as it’s a blessing that she doesn’t cry out her lungs to indicate she’s hungry, or needs a diaper change, it’s also very concerning that she looks so bored all the time,” commented Sirius.

“Maybe she just isn’t interested in many things,” suggested Severus. “Or she is interested in very specific things.”

“Could be,” allowed Sirius, “she does seem to like unicorns a lot. Almost every item of clothing has unicorns, rainbows and clouds on them,” he chuckled. “We’ll just have to discover what else she likes or at least finds interesting enough to show some emotion and enthusiasm,” he sighed.

…

At around eleven o’clock in the morning, there was a knock at the door. Both Severus and Sirius jolted awake after they dozed off on either side of Adriana.

They exchanged anxious looks. What should they do? Should they flee? Should they stay? Was it Dumbledore? The authorities?

Another knock came. This time, it was accompanied by a muffled male voice. “Sirius Black and Severus Snape, show yourselves immediately, otherwise you will leave us no choice but to tear down the door.”

“Shit!” whisper-yelled Sirius, looking fearfully between Severus, Adriana and the door. “What do we do, Severus? They’re going to arrest us and take Adriana away.”

“If they do,” whispered Severus. “We’ll just have to find a way out of prison and a way to get her back, but it’s better if we don’t run now, because then they’re going to think we have something to hide.”

Glancing one last time at Adriana, they got up and went to open the front door. When they did, there was Crouch with a handful of Aurors and Dumbledore.

“Severus Snape and Sirius Black, you are suspected of Death Eater activity, triple murder and infant kidnapping,” announced Crouch in his authoritative voice.

Sirius couldn’t believe the accusations. He suspected they would come up with something ridiculous and absurd, but it was still baffling to hear just how bizarre it sounded.

“As Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement, I, Bartemius Crouch, arrest you for questioning at the Ministry.”

The Aurors immediately entered: two apprehended Sirius, two handcuffed Severus, and the fifth one began searching the house for signs of Adriana. When he found her, he walked up to Dumbledore and handed her over to him.

Sirius snarled. “Don’t think this is over, Dumbledore,” he said as the two Aurors led him out of the house. “Severus and I will get out of Azkaban and we’ll find Adriana and get her back.”

“I don’t see how that will be possible, my boy,” said Dumbledore in mock confusion. “You have serious charges pressed against you and after last night, I doubt there is anything that can save either of you.”

“Don’t you worry, Dumbledore,” sneered Sirius. “We have our ways to make it happen. Interpret that however you want.”

Dumbledore narrowed his eyes, but before he could attempt Legilimency to see what Sirius was referring to, the Aurors apparated them straight to the Ministry.

…

The questioning was a farce. The mock trial they received was a farce, because Crouch didn’t even try to bother with the standard protocol. There was no Veritaserum involved, no memory-reviewing, no magical oaths, nothing. They weren’t even allowed to fully explain the situation without being interrupted every fifth word or so.

Less than fifteen minutes after the ‘trial’ had begun, they declared Severus and Sirius guilty of charges and immediately transported them to Azkaban. Their wands taken and snapped, their magic contained with magic-suppressing handcuffs, they were led to the port where boats destined for Azkaban were docked.

“I always had a hunch there was something off with you, Black,” sneered one of the Aurors escorting them during their boat ride. Sirius simply glared at his lap, but otherwise said nothing.

“I mean, what can one expect from a Black? They’re all dark and crazy,” said the other. “Just one look at the mother and you know the offspring is bound to be the same.”

“True,” agreed the first one. “You took a while to show your colours, but in the end you just couldn’t help yourself and you became a Death Eater, ha?” he sneered at Sirius in provocation.

Although he wanted nothing more than to break every single breakable bone in that bastard’s body with his bare hands, Sirius kept his mouth shut, clenching his teeth.

“What’s the matter? Nothing to say?” continued the Auror, but he still got no reaction from Sirius. He won’t give him the satisfaction to use his tied hands to curse or punch him for disrespecting the authorities. “You can’t say anything, because you know it’s true,” he snarled. “And now, you’ll rot in Azkaban for the rest of your pathetic life as food for dementors, together with your friend.”

A few minutes later, they docked the boat and the Auror guards dragged them out of the boat and inside the gloomy, dark, eerie stone fortress surrounded by a horde of dementors. After climbing several sets of stairs, they turned down the corridor past the occupied cells until the end, where there were already two side-by-side cells waiting for their new occupants.

“Make yourselves at home,” sneered the Auror shoving Sirius, after they locked the heavy-looking metal door behind them.

“This isn’t over, bastard!” finally yelled Sirius, kicking the metal door. Agitated, he sat down and managed to slip his tied arms from behind his back to the front by passing them under his legs.

With his hands at the front, he began planning their escape, because he would be damned if he spent a single night at the prison. He won’t let Dumbledore ruin Adriana’s childhood by sending her to magic-hating muggles to be neglected or abused. Only dead would he allow it, because for as long as there was air in his lungs and his heart pumped blood through his veins, he wouldn’t allow his goddaughter to be unhappy and unloved.

He searched his cell for something stick-like or a rock, but didn’t find anything.

“Shit!” he cursed under his breath. He walked to the wall connecting his cell to Severus’, and spoke through the small opening at the top.

“Severus,” he called for him in a loud whisper. “Yo, Severus, can you hear me?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“Good. Listen; is there anything that looks like a stick or a rock in your cell?”

There was some shuffling coming from the other side, but ultimately, Severus’ answer was, “No.”

He cursed again and let out a defeated sigh, leaning his forehead on the cold and hard wall.

“What do you need a stick or a rock for?” wondered Severus after a while.

There was a long silence. “I think I have a plan to get us out,” concluded Sirius seriously.

“Already?” whisper-exclaimed Severus.

“Yes, but having a stick or a rock is crucial, at least in the first stage of escape.”

“And what kind of escape plan involves a stick or a rock?” wanted to know Severus, confused.

“Alright, Severus, listen close. This is what we’ll do …”

Five minutes later, when he finished his explanation, Severus asked. “Okay, but what will we do after we get out of here? If we don’t get a good lawyer, we’re just going to live as fugitives for the rest of our lives and that’s no way to raise a child.”

“Do you remember Amelia Bones?”

“I do.”

“Then you know she’s known to be very just and uncorrupted. If we go to her with the evidence we stored in your house, we can prove at least to her that we’re innocent and get a proper trial at the very least,” explained Sirius. “After we are free, we ask her for help in finding and blood-adopting Adri, because we may know Dumbledore put her with Lily’s sister, but we don’t know where she lives, and every second is vital.”

As they waited for the guards to serve their first prison meal, Sirius looked around his cell again. Again, he didn’t find anything, except for a cracked and slightly hollowed out wall. Getting close, he inspected it and decided that breaking off a chunk was his best option.

With the side of his fist, he started banging against the stone. He ignored the pain every time his skin and bones connected with the wall and didn’t stop until he managed to chip off a good, hand-sized piece of stone, even if he ended up with a torn and bloody hand.

He tore off a strip of cloth from the blanket that served as his prison bed, shook it as clean as he could, then wrapped it around his hand.

Bandaged, he picked up his primitive weapon, sat down by the door and waited.

…

A few hours later, he heard footsteps coming closer and a voice announcing supper. He stood up, pressed himself against the wall and waited for the guard to open his cell. As soon as he heard the key enter the lock and turn, he lifted his hands above his head.

The door opened and hid him from the guard’s line of sight.

“Black!” called the guard. “Here’s your …” he trailed off. “Black?” he called for him again and stepped inside the cell. “Where the hell is he?”

Sirius immediately stalked towards him and before the motherfucker could turn or scream for help, he banged his head hard with the stone. The man fell unconscious to the floor, the tray and the dishes he was carrying, rattling on the ground.

Sirius quickly went to close the door, then, began searching the guard’s pockets for keys and the wand. He found both, freed himself from the cuffs, handcuffed the guard with the anti-magic cuffs instead, walked to the blanket and gagged him with it, so it would take some time for others to notice or hear him. As a parting gift, he spit on him and kicked him hard in the stomach and chest several times. “Make yourself at home, motherfucker,” sneered Sirius.

Healing his injured hand and transforming his prison uniform into Auror robes, he closed and locked the cell door. He walked to the cell next to his, unlocked it and freed Severus. With the wand he took from the guard, he transformed Severus’ uniform into an Auror uniform as well. They slowly walked up the corridor towards the stairs. On the way, Sirius incapacitated another guard and gave his wand to Severus.

Both armed, they walked to the lowest level of the prison, where the exit was, taking out every guard they encountered on the way with a ‘Stupefy’, then, tying and gagging them with ‘Incarcerous’, just to make sure none of them woke up and started screaming bloody murder, before they were able to reach the mainland with the bloody boat.

At the exit, they found two guards stationed there. They stopped and pressed themselves against the wall. Sirius made several hand gestures to Severus, indicating he would take out the guard on the left and Severus would take out the guard on the right.

With a ‘Stupefy’, the guards dropped to the floor, unconscious, not knowing what hit them. Unlocking the door, they walked to the shore, undocked a boat and sailed towards the other side.

As soon as they touched land, they apparated to Spinner’s End, where they cut open the mattress and found the evidence as they left it. Relieved, they hurried to Amelia Bones. It was definitely not the visiting hours, but as Sirius said, every second counted, because it was only a matter of time, before the news about their prison break spread throughout the Ministry like wildfire.

“Who is it?” came Amelia’s stern voice through the door.

“Sirius Black and Severus Snape,” answered Sirius.

The lock immediately opened and the door burst open, revealing a dumbfounded Amelia. “How did you get out of Azkaban so quick?” she asked in wonder. “Wait, how did you even get out of Azkaban in the first place? Forget that, what are you doing out of prison after being declared guilty?”

“We need your help,” said Sirius straightforwardly.

She gaped at him. “What?”

“We need you to help us, Miss Bones,” said Severus.

She looked at them as if they had lost their minds. “Why would I want to help convicted criminals? Death Eaters at that,” she insisted, remembering how Voldemort and his followers had killed her brother and his family. The only survivor of that massacre was her niece Susan.

“Please, Amelia,” begged Sirius desperately, “we’re innocent. We have proof. Just, please, give us a chance to explain the situation.”

She eyed them with scepticism.

“I swear everything will make sense,” Sirius assured her, “but we have to hurry, before they notice we’re missing from Azkaban and start looking for us.”

She eyed them suspiciously for a while longer, before sighing in resignation. “Fine,” she said, “I’ll listen to what you have to say and look at the proof you claim to have, but if this is a hoax, I will personally deliver you to the cell you broke out of.”

Sirius’ tormented face illuminated with hope.


	5. Operation: Recover Baby Adriana and Blood Adopt Her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus and Sirius come up with a plan to prove their innocence, blood adopt Adriana and prove that Dumbledore wasn't as good as everyone thought. All that with Amelia's help. Oh, and they also get married.

“So …” began Amelia, sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose, “let me see if I understand everything so far. You two have been working together secretly to protect James and Lily from You-Know-Who since early September last year, judging from the dates of these … text messages.”

“Yes,” they nodded.

“And the one who betrayed the Potters was Pettigrew, supposing this little letter written in blood was indeed written by You-Know-Who.”

“Exactly,” they said.

“And you want me to help you find Adriana and take care of all the necessary paperwork to blood-adopt her?

“Yes.”

She let out a sigh. “Well, I don’t know how much you two know about the wizarding family law, but I can instantly tell you, blood-adoption is out the window,” she told them gravely.

Sirius and Severus wore similar expressions of confusion. “Why?”

“Because according to the current family law only MARRIED COUPLES, whether heterosexual or homosexual, can blood adopt children,” explained Amelia. “Therefore, unless you two marry in the next week or two, well, I’m afraid I can’t do much on that front.”

Marriage.

Their eyes met. While Sirius wouldn’t mind marrying Severus, not just to get custody of Adriana, but because he wanted to be with the man himself, it was evident to him that Severus felt much more conflicted by the idea of marrying him.

Amelia looked from one to the other, watching their silent gazes. “You don’t have to do it immediately,” she told them to ease the tension. “First, we should focus on clearing your names, because you won’t even be able to consider any kind of adoption or guardianship rights if you have a criminal record.”

“How are you going to go about it?” wanted to know Sirius, forcing himself to look away from Severus.

“Tomorrow, we are going to write up your testimonies, take copies of the evidence and store the originals at Gringotts, should someone attempt to temper with or destroy them,” said Amelia, only to sigh a moment later. “You breaking out of Azkaban might not work in your favour, but we can argue that you were never given a fair chance and that the interrogation and the trial were not following standard protocol. In the meantime,” she said, rising up from the sofa, “I can provide sanctuary to you. I hope one room and bed will be enough for the both of you,” she said sternly with a quirked eyebrow.

Severus and Sirius nodded.

“Good, then it’s settled.” She was about to leave the room, when she turned to them. “Well, come along, or are you going to be able to find the room on your own?”

They immediately stood up and followed her. Once she showed them where they would be staying until it was safe for them to show their faces in public, she asked them if they wanted to eat anything. They accepted gratefully. After not eating anything since breakfast and escaping Azkaban, they were starving.

…

After dinner, Amelia retired to her own bedroom and Severus and Sirius stayed in their guest room. As they lay side by side, staring at the ceiling, not being able to sleep, Sirius broke the silence.

“Severus,” he called in a soft whisper. It took Severus a few moments to murmur back to indicate he heard him. “Would you like to marry me?”

Severus turned his head to Sirius. “You can’t be serious, Black,” he said, baffled.

Sirius turned to him. “What if I am?” he prompted him, his expression serious. “What if I am serious about marrying you?” he insisted with an intense gaze. “And not just to get guardianship over Adri,” he added.

Severus turned his gaze towards the ceiling again, his breath slightly agitated.

Sirius reached for his hand. “Severus.”

Severus squeezed his eyes and let out a loud and heavy sigh.

“Severus, look at me,” he insisted gently, his thumb softly rubbing the back of his hand. He turned his face towards Sirius. “I don’t know much about love,” whispered Sirius, caressing Severus’ cheek, “but I know that I really like your company and sharing a bed with you, even if we’ve only done it twice in one day.”

Severus’ breath hitched and in the dim night light shining from the window, Sirius could have sworn he blushed. He scooted closer to Severus, grazing his legs against his. “If I’m going to be a parent, I want to share that kind of responsibility with you. I want it to be you and no one else.” He pressed his forehead to Severus’, who let out a shaky breath.

“Black,” he choked out, “I …” Before he could say anything, Sirius interrupted him.

“You don’t have to give me an answer right now,” he said hastily. He _really_ wasn’t ready to hear a rejection. Not when he confessed his feelings for Severus without any corny jokes or flirtatious, light-hearted comments to undermine the weight of his words and feelings. “I can wait until this entire ordeal with our innocence is over and we start looking for Adri.”

“Sirius, you do realise It’s barely been a day since both James and Lily died, and you’re professing your feelings for me and proposing matrimony?”

Sirius chuckled grimly. “Yeah, I’m aware of just how fucked up it is, and I didn’t plan on saying anything until I was certain you felt the same, but I _needed_ to tell you this _now_ , because when you go through what we went through, it reminds you of how everything can go to shit in an instant.” He cupped Severus’ face. “And I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to tell you what I feel for you.”

Severus let out an incredulous snort, but turned his body towards Sirius and let him nuzzle his face and press his body to his.

“Severus,” began Sirius uncertainly, after a beat of silence.

“What is it?” he prompted him.

“Can I kiss you?” Their eyes met in the darkness. “I _really_ want to kiss you.”

Severus gulped nervously, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. His heart began hammering wildly in his chest and his hands became sweaty. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything, because he wasn’t sure if he was even able to form words without his voice failing him. Therefore, he simply nodded ever so slightly with closed eyes, held his breath and waited expectantly for Sirius to kiss him. When he did, it was a tentative, gentle, and cautious press of lips, as if any abrupt or overzealous movement on Sirius’ part would break the charm and push Severus away.

To an outsider, the kiss itself probably wasn’t an overachievement, but to Severus it was the most amazing first kiss he could have imagined or wanted, not that he would ever say it aloud and feed Black’s ego. Given how people perceived him and his looks, he never thought anyone would ever show this kind of interest in him, much less Sirius Black, who spent his entire Hogwarts career tormenting and insulting him. Now, this man was kissing him as if he was the most precious and delicate thing in the entire world, wrapping his arms around him, pressing him close.

He still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact Sirius had spent the last several months actively flirting with him, trying to take him out on dates, buy him presents, and now, he wanted to marry him and raise Adriana together as their blood-adopted daughter. Oh, and the kiss. The kiss made him dizzy and light-headed. Thank Merlin they were lying in a bed, because he felt like putty, and the last thing he wanted was faint in Black’s arms from pleasure from a bloody kiss no less. Talk about embarrassment.

As their lips continued to move gently against one another, Severus wrapped his arms around Sirius’ middle as well, intertwining his legs with his. The kiss remained chaste with no tongue involved and while Severus felt slightly disappointed that they didn’t get to that point, he still appreciated the fact Sirius didn’t just simply shove his tongue down his throat. When they separated, their foreheads and noses kept touching and their slightly agitated breaths mingled together.

After nuzzling his face for a bit, Sirius started placing soft, gentle kisses all over Severus’ face, until he tucked his head under his chin and just held him close. They didn’t say anything for quite some time. Between Sirius’ soothing heartbeat and scent surrounding him, Severus was already half asleep, when Sirius spoke again.

“Severus?”

“Hm?” he murmured back sleepily.

“Do you think Adri is okay? Do you think they fed her and changed her diaper? Do you think she’s warm and comfortable?” Sirius kept firing rhetorical questions; questions neither he nor Severus knew the answers to, but could only hope were affirmative.

“I don’t know,” admitted Severus. “I hope Petunia took care at least of her basic physiological needs, but you never know with her. She just might let her sleep in her own piss and poop, just to spite her dead sister.”

Sirius let out an exasperated breath. “I know it’s only been hours since they took her, but I swear it’s killing me from the inside not knowing these things.” Sirius’ voice cracked towards the end and from how he was trying to normalise his breathing, Severus knew Black was holding back tears.

“I know,” he said and squeezed him ever so tightly to give him and himself comfort. It worked, but then Sirius went and worked himself up again.

“And it might take at least a week before we’re going to be declared free and innocent men and another week just to track down Lily’s sister.”

“Have you ever heard what Petunia’s new surname was?”

“I heard it once, but I don’t recall what it was, something to do with parsley or at least it rhymed with parsley.”

Severus snorted. Parsley, indeed.

…

As Sirius’ hunch predicted, it took them a bit less than a week to clear their names, mostly because there were other Death Eater trials taking place, but also because Dumbledore was trying to undermine every single piece of evidence they presented at the hearing. If he didn’t doubt the veracity of text messages and their dates, he doubted that the letter presumably found together with Pettigrew’s corpse was indeed written in Voldemort’s handwriting. He also gleefully pointed out their escape and Severus’ Dark Mark.

Luckily, Amelia foresaw every objection beforehand and had them prepare truthful answers that would win the argument. After having to pay a fine of 750 galleons each, they were free.

They immediately enlisted Amelia’s help to track down Adriana. With Petunia’s maiden name, the approximation of her new surname, a vague physical description of the woman and an approximate location of residence, Amelia teamed up with the muggle police and detective agencies to get the work done faster.

While the authorities worked, Sirius and Severus went to Gringotts to get their legal and financial affairs in order. They wanted to have everything settled before getting married and before moving into their new home with Adriana. Given that Walburga disowned Sirius, he had no titles or money that went with the Black name; he only had his own personal savings from his job as an Auror and his little flat in Diagon Alley. Surprisingly, Severus turned out to be much better off; besides the money he got from selling potions to different potions establishments and his house in Spinner’s End, he was apparently the last living member of the Prince line and thus he was entitled to the title of Lord, the money and the main family estate and manor.

“Well,” he said, after recovering from his shock, “at least we’ll be able to give Adri a comfortable childhood.” Severus simply continued to stare blankly at the paper in his hands.

They married on November 10th, 1990, at Gringotts, and officially moved into the Prince Manor on the same day. The nerves over Adriana’s whereabouts and well-being prevented them from enjoying their wedding night or even thinking about honeymoon.

Luckily, three days later, on November 13th, they received news about Adriana’s whereabouts. The muggle police and detectives, managed to track down a woman that fit the physical description, went by the surname Dursley and lived in Little Whinging, Surrey, at 4 Privet Drive.

They immediately went to Surrey, accompanied by Amelia and a couple of Aurors Amelia trusted to keep everything quiet from the Ministry and Dumbledore. As soon as Petunia opened the door, Sirius barged into the house, demanding Adriana.

When the woman fearfully pointed at the cupboard under the stairs and Sirius opened it and saw his precious goddaughter in the dark, small and smelly space, lying on a thin blanket and nothing more, fussing, her face red and showing clear signs of distress and discomfort, he thought he would lose it.

He immediately picked her up, pressing his lips to her feverish forehead, whispering soothing words, and rocking her. His dog nose told him her diaper was soiled and that she wasn’t well. “She’s feverish, probably hungry and needs her diaper changed,” he told Severus, who had joined him.

“We’ll take her to Gringotts for a medical check-up,” he assured him, whispering a cooling charm to try and lower Adriana’s fever.

Sirius nodded stiffly, then, turned his glare on Petunia. “How could you do that to your own flesh and blood?” he snarled, his canines growing in length and sharpness, his eyes acquiring an animalistic glint. “She’s just a baby!”

Petunia flinched, but kept her face in a sneer. “It’s not like I wanted to take care of her, but that old coot, Dumbledore, said we didn’t have a choice.”

“What did Dumbledore say to you, Mrs. Dursley?” interjected Amelia. This could be their starting point in investigating Dumbledore’s involvement with the murder of the Potters.

“Personally, nothing,” she huffed irritatedly. “He left a letter explaining the situation together with the girl on our doorstep.”

Sirius was seeing red again. That fucker dared leave a three-month-old baby on a doorstep in autumn without a warming charm … no wonder Adriana had a fever right now. If she caught more than just a fever and a cold, Sirius would personally make sure Dumbledore spent the rest of his days in Azkaban, cuffed.

“May we have the letter, ma’am?” insisted Amelia politely.

Petunia agreed and handed the letter over. As soon as they saw the letter, all of them could feel a dense and very malicious black and purple aura, surrounding the letter. Sirius’ sensitive dog nose was even able to smell something sharp, putrid and acidic that irritated his nostrils and the back of his throat.

Amelia took out a handkerchief, before picking the letter up and placing it into a pouch. “Thank you very much for your co-operation, Mrs. Dursley, we’ll be on our way. Have a good day,” said Amelia politely and all of them left promptly.

…

A quick scan on the letter revealed the envelope and the letter itself were drenched in a combination of hate, compulsion and desire-to-harm spells directed at Adriana Potter and keyed to Albus Dumbledore’s magical signature. Why someone like Dumbledore wanted the muggles to hate and harm their niece and cousin escaped them, but it definitely wasn’t a good reason.

When Severus and Sirius took Adriana to a healer at Gringotts after feeding her, washing her with cool water and changing her diaper, the medical examination revealed more disturbing facts. Coupled with the fever and a cold, what caused Adriana further discomfort were a number of compulsions placed on her by Albus Dumbledore.

“I swear, Severus, when I get my hands on that bastard, I’m going to rip him apart with my bare hands and no magic,” snarled Sirius viciously, pacing the room and raking his fingers through his curls.

“I get your anger, because I’m furious too,” spoke Severus firmly, walking up to his husband, “but if you kill him, no matter how justified, you would still be imprisoned, and I thought we said we were going to raise Adriana together, as partners.” He cupped his face and placed a gentle kiss on his husband’s lips.

Sirius calmed down a bit, but he continued frowning and glaring.

Sadly, they couldn’t remove the compulsions without endangering Adriana’s life due to her being so young, but the goblins assured them that most, if not all, compulsions would disappear when they blood adopted her. However, first, they would keep a copy of her current medical results and send it to Amelia, for extra evidence should they open a lawsuit against Dumbledore.

Two days later, they were given permission to blood adopt her and just as speculated, the compulsions placed on her were broken when they did another medical check-up shortly after the ritual.

Amelia, bless her brains, managed to get an authorised autopsy for Peter Pettigrew to see if a scan could reveal anything useful to them … and it did. Despite the subject being dead for three weeks, there were still traces of a compulsion spell keyed to Dumbledore’s magical signature that was supposed to make Pettigrew careless and reckless, which could explain how the Death Eaters captured him in the first place. He still betrayed Lily and James by revealing the information about their hideout willingly, but at least Sirius knew he didn’t willingly surrender himself to Voldemort or let himself be captured.

As the final piece of evidence, Amelia secured a meeting with the Death Eaters that captured Pettigrew, to try to find out how exactly they were able to learn that Pettigrew was the Secret-Keeper for the Potters and how exactly they captured him. All three responsible Death Eaters gave the same account; they received an anonymous note telling them all the information. When asked about the location of the note, they said they discarded it.

Amelia, refusing to leave the matter be, asked them to reconstruct the message. When they did, she then showed them a copy of Albus Dumbledore’s letter to the Dursleys with erased personal names and any compromising bits that would reveal the possible identity of the writer, so that the Death Eaters could identify the similarities in the handwriting. All three confirmed that the note they received had the same handwriting as the letter she showed them.

Once they gathered all the evidence and were able to reconstruct the order of events, Sirius couldn’t wait to see the look on Dumbledore’s face when he would be apprehended on Hogwarts grounds in front of all the staff and students, surrounded by news reporters. His husband shared his sentiment. Voldemort may have killed James (while inspecting the Potter Cottage for evidence of the struggle that occurred, they found the summoning circle and the book on demon protection and deduced that Lily had summoned a Demon to protect her daughter and sacrificed her soul in the process), but Dumbledore orchestrated everything, and for that he deserved Azkaban.

When they captured him a few days before Yule, the news of Dumbledore’s scheme to get control over the prophecy child that would defeat Voldemort scandalised the entirety of the British wizarding community. The man, of course, denied everything at first, but when Amelia kept coming forward with damning evidence, he finally showed his true colours. The judge and jury presiding over the trial declared him guilty, revoked all of his titles, and sentenced him to Azkaban for life, where he would have to wear magic-restraining hand and ankle cuffs at all times.

As the Aurors dragged a struggling and screaming Dumbledore out of the courtroom, Sirius spoke to him, “I told you Severus and I would succeed, Dumbledore,” he said smugly.

“I should have known you were behind all this, you two and Amelia,” spat Dumbledore hatefully. “Don’t think this is over, Black, just like you got your way, I will get mine in the end, because you might have won the battle, but I will win the war.”

“What battle? What war, old man?” scoffed Sirius. “There’s no Voldemort anymore.”

Dumbledore chuckled darkly. “He’s not dead. I know he isn’t. He’ll come back and when he does, you will come begging me for help to fight him. When he returns, you’ll have to accept the fact your _precious_ goddaughter is the only one who can stop him.”

“My _daughter_ ,” emphasised Sirius grimly, “is _not_ a weapon. She’s a human being and she will live a long and happy life away from war. Away from _you_. Even if you’re right about Voldemort, it will take him a _long_ time to recover enough before resuming any war effort, and when he does, I’ll hide my daughter away from him so he won’t be able to get his filthy hands on her. As for you, rot in Azkaban for what you did to my friends and my daughter, you son of a bitch.”

Dumbledore’s smug face contorted into a menacing grimace again.

As Dumbledore disappeared behind the large, heavy courtroom door, Sirius let out a sigh of relief. He felt Severus’ hands around him and he leaned into his husband’s embrace. “I’m so glad you came to me for help, Severus,” he whispered. “I don’t even want to imagine all the shit that would have happened if you went to Dumbledore.”

“I’m also glad I didn’t,” agreed Severus, kissing Sirius’ temple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed how everything went down in this chapter. 😇 I tried to make it believable, but I'm no lawyer or detective. I do play Sherlock Holmes games, but again, that doesn't make me an expert in the field. So, I hope I did a good job with it. In the next chapter, we're finally moving a bit towards Adriana. There will still be a lot of Severus and Sirius-centric moments, but Adriana will get her moments to shine too. 😁


	6. A Brief Overview of Adriana’s Childhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snippets of Adriana's childhood.

With Dumbledore imprisoned, Minerva McGonagall took over Hogwarts as its Headmistress, naming Filius Flitwick as her Deputy Headmaster, and Severus and Sirius could finally breathe with ease and not worry about him coming after them or Adriana.

Now that they had settled at the Prince Manor with their daughter, Sirius wanted to find his only remaining, living friend, Remus Lupin, who had practically disappeared after that horrible night. It took some convincing on his part for Severus to agree to have the werewolf be a regular guest at their home, but in the end, his husband relented.

However, finding Remus proved to be easier said than done. He first tried sending letters to him through owls, but either none reached him or he read the letters but send them back without a reply. The more letters he sent and received no reply, the more annoyed Sirius grew with Remus. How difficult was to write back? Even a simple ‘Fuck off, Sirius. Leave me be,’ would have been appreciated at this point.

“ _Remus fucking Lupin_ ,” he wrote in one of the latest letters to Remus, “ _if you continue to ignore your best friend’s concern for your well-being, I will publish a missing poster of you in the Daily Prophet and give a generous monetary reward to the person who catches you and brings you to me. So, you either answer my letters, because I’m pretty sure the owls have reached you on every occasion, or come visit me yourself. You know where I live now. Your best friend, Sirius Black_.”

The threat worked, because the very next day, after sending the letter, Remus came knocking on the front door of the mansion. He looked terrible as if he hadn’t showered, slept or eaten well in a while. His clothes wore torn and dirty, and his face sported fresh scars in addition to a beard, dark circles under his eyes and gaunt cheeks.

“You win, Sirius,” he said hoarsely and in defeat. “Just don’t put a missing poster in a newspaper.”

Sadness filled Sirius’ features as he closed the distance between them and pulled Remus into a hug.

“Come, Moony,” he beckoned him inside. “You need a shower, some food and a bed to sleep. And some new clothes.”

Knowing it would be pointless to argue with Sirius, Remus let him guide him to a guestroom where he shed his clothes and had a decent bath for the first time in what felt like forever. He took his time, while Sirius went to his bedroom with Severus to get him a shirt and a pair of trousers from his closet.

When he was decent, he joined Sirius, Severus and little Adriana, who was hugging a plush unicorn toy to her side, at lunch. After exchanging an awkward greeting with Severus, Sirius addressed Adriana.

“Adri, do you remember Uncle Moony?”

She stared at him for a while until she beamed at him and repeated after Sirius. “Unca Moony!”

Remus smiled at the child’s voice and enthusiasm and greeted her himself. “Hello, Adriana. How are you?”

“I good,” she replied happily. “You?”

“I’m fine too.”

“Will you introduce your friend to Uncle Moony, Adri?” encouraged Sirius, referring to the unicorn plush.

“Yes,” she nodded with an adorably determined expression. “Unca Moony, this Mista Unihone.” She waved a bit with her toy. “Mista Unihone, this Unca Moony.” She picked up one of the unicorn’s front legs and held it out to him to shake.

“Hi, Unca Moony, pweasa to meats you,” she said in a slightly deeper and more formal tone, giving her voice to the toy.

Smiling, he followed her lead, shook hands with the toy, and addressed it directly. “Pleasure to meet you too, Mr. Unicorn.”

“And can you tell your Uncle Moony what Mr. Unicorn is doing at the table?” Sirius prompted her.

“Mista Unihone get hungwy, so he eat too,” she said importantly.

“I see.” Remus couldn’t stop smiling and Sirius couldn’t either, even Severus had a soft and fond expression on his face as he gazed at Adriana.

“Isn’t she precious, Moony?” Sirius whispered to Remus excitedly, when they were sitting at the table, eating and observing how Adriana held her spoon and fed the toy and herself.

“She is,” he agreed. “Although, I’m surprised to see her so talkative and showing interest,” he added, intrigued. “I don’t remember her doing much except eat and sleep.”

“Well, after Severus and I discovered what she liked it didn’t take her long to show enthusiasm and talk.”

“And what does she like?” pressed Remus.

“Quite a few things, actually. Although, they are quite specific too. Unicorns are her favourite. Mr. Unicorn is her favourite toy and I found these unicorn crisps that she loves to eat for breakfast or as a snack. That’s also how I got her to start walking,” said Sirius proudly.

Remus’ eyes widened. “You got her walking with unicorn-shaped crisps?”

“Aha,” he murmured with his mouth full.

“What did that even look like?” wondered Remus.

“There’s a coffee table in the living room. I placed the crisps all around the edge for her to have a trail and I suppose she realised that it would be easier for her to just stand on her feet and waddle alongside the table, using it as support, than to crawl on all fours and then get up again after every crisp she ate.”

Remus hadn’t heard of anything similar before.

“I know,” breathed Sirius after seeing the expression of disbelief on his friend’s face, “it sounds like I’m training a dog and well, Adri is my pup and I’m a dog animagus, so, technically speaking I am training a dog.”

Remus almost choked at the admission and even Severus looked displeased.

“Don’t look at me like that,” deadpanned Sirius. “No matter what it looks like, my method is producing results and Adri is happy to eat her treats from the coffee table while she’s also learning to walk.”

“And besides unicorns,” said Remus to steer the conversation into the original direction, “what else does she like?”

“Well, she also really likes shiny things, like jewellery. It just seems fascinating to her. She also likes soft, fluffy and pretty things, whether it’s a toy or a piece of clothing, and whenever we take a bath with her, she’s absolutely fascinated by soap bubbles.”

“In terms of colours,” Severus took over, “she prefers different shades of pink and purple, gold, silver, bronze, occasionally she would feel in the mood for a pastel blue or emerald green and that’s it.”

“And of course, she likes her fathers,” Sirius announced happily.

…

Even after Remus got rid of some of his feelings of intrusion and Severus seemed more relaxed in his company, Remus still insisted on leaving their house. Sirius relented, but only when Remus promised him to visit regularly, to take care of himself and to get a stable job so he could eat and dress like a decent human being. Severus also offered to brew Wolfsbane potion for him each month so he wouldn’t have to worry about his werewolf side, something that both Sirius and Remus appreciated greatly, especially Sirius who made sure to show his gratitude to his husband with lots of sex and Severus enjoyed every single bit of it.

Not long after leaving their house, Remus found a job as a shop assistant at Flourish and Blotts and began renting a room at the Leaky Cauldron, and when summer rolled by, he sent a job application letter for Transfiguration teaching post at Hogwarts. He didn’t really expect to be given a chance, but was pleasantly surprised when McGonagall sent a positive reply and asked him to meet up with her at school for a proper job interview.

When it was certain that he would start as the new Transfiguration teacher, he finally told the news to Sirius, who was proud and happy for his friend. He invited him over for lunch to celebrate his new job and even though starting September, he wouldn’t be able to visit several times a week, he still promised to visit every weekend.

In the meantime, he still had a birthday party to attend as Adriana’s honorary godfather. He took what Sirius and Severus told him about Adriana’s tastes into account when purchasing his gift and decided to buy her another unicorn plush.

“Now, Mr. Unicorn and you can have another friend,” he said, when Adriana unwrapped the gift.

Adriana was ecstatic, thanked him and hugged him and she already had a name ready for it as well, if slightly unusual. She called it Maovo.

…

As Adriana grew, her interests expanded a bit as well. She acquired a liking for human like dolls with lots of doll clothes and long hair so she could play dress-up with them and pretend she was a famous hairstylist and even a fashion designer. When she turned four, she wanted to learn how to sew, so she could make clothes for her dolls and unicorn toys herself. She even ventured a bit into the make-up realm but mostly kept it minimal, eyeshadow, lipstick and nail polish, and usually only applied it to her dolls, unless she managed to convince one of her fathers to let her paint their nails or put some make-up on them. Since both Sirius and Severus had longer hair, she also liked to play with their hair, braid it and do pig tails.

Shortly after Adriana turned four, something unexpected happened. Kreacher suddenly appeared in the middle of their living room, informing Sirius that his mother was sick and wanted to see him and his family.

Adriana was both fascinated and weirded out by the house elf. She thought he looked ugly and grimaced at the sight of him, but then she was scandalised by the fact he only seemed to be wearing a pillowcase.

Meanwhile, Sirius didn’t know what to make of his mother’s sudden change of heart. Maybe it was the deathbed speaking, but after that fight where many horrible things were said on both sides, he never expected to see or hear from her or any of his family again. Now, his brother was dead, his father died shortly after that whole ordeal at the court happened and his mother was dying too.

He told Kreacher he needed time and that he’ll call for him once he made his final decision.

In the quiet of his bedroom with Severus, he confessed that he wanted to go visit her, if only to see what she wanted. However, he also didn’t want to go and risk being degraded again, being told what a disappointment and failure he was, how she wished she hadn’t given birth to him if she had known that he would doom their bloodline to become extinct by marrying a half-blood wizard and adopting a half-blood girl.

“She can insult me all she wants at this point,” he whispered, determined. “It will still hurt if she does, but I will not let her insult and badmouth you or our daughter. You two are off limits. I refuse to let her drag you into this mess between her and me.”

Severus embraced him to calm him down and Sirius snuggled closer, hugging him back.

In the end, Sirius’ curiosity was stronger than doubt, nerves and uncertainty and he decided to pay his mother a visit. However, first, he needed to explain a couple of things to Adriana. Since he never spoke of his mother, or any of his family, to her, she didn’t know she had a living ‘grandmother’, so, he needed to tell her she had one. He was also determined to tell her a simplified version of why they never visited her or why she never visited them and that she was very ill and that she might die very soon.

Adriana proved to be a very understanding four-year-old when she said she wasn’t angry with him for not telling her about her grandmother sooner, in fact, she even said that she would tell her a few things if she was mean to him and it melted his heart to hear her say it. He hugged her tightly to his chest and she hugged back, proudly announcing that she loved him very much.

“I love you too, sweetie,” he whispered on the verge of tears, kissing her hair. “I love you too.”

“And Papa Sev too,” she added importantly.

He chuckled, his eyes still watery. “Yeah, I love him too.”

“Let’s go tell him that,” she said excitedly. Sirius picked her up and together they went to find Severus in his laboratory in the basement. They tackled him in a bear hug and told him they loved him. However, Adriana ended up grimacing and saying, “I love you, Papa Sev, but you stink of potions. You need a shower.”

“I agree, Adri, Papa Sev needs thorough cleaning to rid him of the potion stink and I’m happy to help him,” he added suggestively into Severus’ ear.

“Oh, I stink?” he said, playfully narrowing his eyes. “Well then I better make sure to make you stinky too, young lady.”

“No!” she squealed as he caught her in a bear hug and started rubbing his chin over the top of her head. Once she managed to get free, she wasn’t happy with him. “You ruined my hair,” she complained, covering the top of her head. “And you made me stinky. Now I have to wash too.”

He laughed. When he offered to help her, she left his lap, stuck her chin up and huffed, “I’m going to wash myself,” and adorably stormed out of the room. Sirius, on the other hand, remained, more than eager for Severus to mess him up, smelling of potions or not.

“I thought you agreed with Adriana that I need a shower,” said Severus in a low, husky voice, gripping Sirius’ waist as his husband straddled him and kissed him passionately.

“Oh, you definitely need a shower,” he grinned, undoing the buttons on Severus’ linen white shirt, “but you know I don’t mind the smell of potions, if anything it always reminds me of you, and I want you to fuck me, here and now.” He dove in for another heart-stopping kiss.

After making sure, his worktable was clear; Severus placed his husband on it and began tugging impatiently at his clothes. They kissed, licked and nipped at every expanse of skin they could reach. Their breaths mingled together and their mouths and tongues danced with one another’s, while their hands explored the other’s body anew.

Even after nearly four years of marriage, it still felt like the first time they were together. They were both still enthralled with each other’s bodies and personalities, even if sometimes they had their disagreements on certain things and especially on how they should raise Adriana. Hopefully they were doing a good job so far, because Adriana was peculiar and special, but a happy, straightforward and nice girl, who did things she liked, never demanded anything or had any nasty behavioural tantrums.

Severus’ hand closed around Sirius’ cock and started pumping gently, eliciting throaty groans and moans from his husband, while his other hand reached between his ass cheeks and rubbed over his puckered hole. There was a sharp intake of air and his body tensed as Severus continued to touch him.

He let his eyes flutter shut and his head fall back, and just let the sensation of his husband’s slightly calloused fingers and sinfully soft mouth give him pleasure. It didn’t take long for Severus to reduce him to a writhing, moaning mess, begging for his cock and release, and he hadn’t even put a finger inside him.

Therefore, when he did and he brushed against his sweet spot, Sirius arched his back off the table and tensed some more. Before Severus managed to lubricate and stretch him enough to fit three fingers inside, he felt close to coming. However, Severus stopped just when he felt on the cusp of reaching that sweet and utter blissful sensation.

He groaned in frustration, but before he could say anything, he heard Severus whispering seductively against his lips, “Not yet, Sirius.”

“Then when?” he snapped, his cock aching and leaking.

“When I’m inside you,” he kissed him, “filling you and stretching you with my cock,” he kissed him again, “that’s when you can cum.”

Sirius wrapped his limbs around Severus and demanded, “Then put it inside, because I can’t take it anymore.”

“Patience, Sirius,” he chuckled smugly, rubbing his erection between his ass cheeks.

“Stop with the teasing already,” he breathed impatiently, squirming a bit. “You know I want you like I’ve never wanted nor will ever want anyone.”

A smug yet fond expression settled on Severus’ face. He leaned forward, supporting his weight on his forearms on either side of Sirius’ head. “I know,” he whispered, nuzzling his nose with his. “Because I feel the same way too.”

Sirius cradled his face and pulled him in for a kiss filled with love. Severus returned it with the same intensity and enthusiasm and when they separated ever so slightly, Sirius whispered, “I love you, Severus,” against his husband’s lips.

“Me too, Sirius.” He caressed Sirius’ cheek. “Me too.” And without any further teasing involved, he lined his manhood with Sirius’ hole and gently pushed inside, breaching and stretching, filling Sirius up with his girth. Sirius’ his face contorted with pleasure into one of the most erotic sights that never failed to make Severus aroused even after seeing it over a hundred if not more times.

Neither of them lasted long, but it didn’t matter because by the time they reached the bathroom, they would be more than ready for a second round and both looked forward to it, because in addition to Sirius’ expression filled with pleasure what turned Severus on was Sirius’ mouth around his cock and his well-fucked and cum-dripping asshole.

…

“Are you ready to meet your grandmother Walburga?” asked Sirius, after forming a bow at the top of Adriana’s head with her holographic hair ribbon. She wore a beautiful purple dress, white stockings, holographic shoes …, and a very determined expression.

She nodded with Mr. Unicorn tucked under one arm and Maovo under the other. “And Mr. Unicorn and Maovo are going to be our bodyguards and they will unleash their unicorn fury onto grandma if she starts being mean to us.”

Her fathers laughed and caressed her head lovingly. Then, Sirius called for Kreacher and let him know he was ready to face his mother.

Standing in the entrance of his childhood house, seeing the same tapestries, the same staircase, and smelling the same scent brought so many memories forth that Sirius felt overwhelmed. He could still clearly remember every insult, every curse, every punishment and every scream and scathing remark that was uttered in his childhood until he left the house for good to the point of where he was having second thoughts, his chest and throat hurt and constricted, his hands were sweaty and he felt dizzy.

Severus noticed his pale countenance and immediately checked if he was okay. If he wanted to continue and go through with this.

“We already came this far, I can do this,” he breathed weakly, gripping his husband’s hand tightly.

Severus looked unconvinced, but didn’t argue. Instead, he simply squeezed back, letting him know he was there to help and support him, something Sirius appreciated infinitely. When even Adriana noticed some of his reluctance, she also offered her support and the support of her plush unicorns, who would protect them from any sort of harm.

Knowing he wasn’t alone, he readied himself and followed Kreacher to his parent’s bedroom, where his mother lied in bed, ghostly pale, wearing one of her horrendous nightgowns and nightcaps. It looked as if she was sleeping, but when Kreacher announced their arrival, she cracked open her bloodshot eyes and looked at them.

“So …” her voice was hoarse and wheezy from disuse. “You came.”

“I did,” he said stiffly, clenching his teeth. He could feel muscles in his cheeks twitching. “What do you want?”

There was a long silence. “Many things,” she sighed finally. “I want the Black Family line to continue, but my only remaining son, who my husband and I disowned, decided to marry a man instead of a woman … At least you could have married a proper pureblood, but no … you married a half-blood.” Her eyes scanned and bore into Severus, not with hatefulness, but shrewdness. “I suppose this half-blood is still better than if you had decided to marry a muggle, man or woman … Thank Merlin for small mercies in life.”

Sirius furrowed his brow. “If you intend to insult my husband, I’m leaving,” he said sternly.

She chuckled and immediately started to have a coughing fit, until she ended up coughing blood. Adriana instinctively hid behind Sirius and Severus, wary of Walburga’s health condition.

“If my intention was to insult your husband, I would have already done so,” she said softly, a small, weak smile tugging on her lips. “I’m merely telling you what I would have liked for you, for this family, but you never did what was expected of you, did you? You always did the opposite of what you were told …” She sighed. “Yet … you, who has forsaken this family and its values … you have thrived away from us … will outlive all of us and I can’t help but wonder if maybe your stubbornness to go against us has ensured your survival so far. In a way … I’m proud of you, you know.”

He looked away, at the ground, not saying anything.

“I know of your struggles with the law, of your adoption …” At that, her gaze flitted to Adriana, who was now also hiding behind her unicorn toys. Her gaze returned to her son. “I do read papers, you know … or at least I read them while I could still do things by myself.” She looked at Adriana again. “Would you mind if I took a better look at … your daughter?”

Both Sirius and Adriana seemed reluctant to let her do that, but in the end, Adriana gathered enough courage to approach Walburga, with her unicorn toys providing support.

“Such a beautiful young lady,” said Walburga, after taking a good look at her attire and her hair. “Say, how old are you?”

“Four.”

“And don’t you wish to have a sibling?”

“Not really. I’m happy with having Papa Siri and Papa Sev all to myself,” she said seriously.

Walburga chuckled. “But imagine if you had a younger brother or sister … you could play with them.” She insisted, but Adriana remained resolute.

“I am already playing with my toys; I don’t need a brother or sister.”

“Oh, but it’s not the same. Toys can’t really play ball with you.”

“Mother …” gritted Sirius in warning, but she ignored him. Severus just touched him comfortingly and shook his head.

“I don’t like playing ball anyway,” Adriana insisted.

“Oh … and what do you like to play then?”

“I like to play with dresses and hair and make-up,” Adriana said excitedly. “I’m also going to learn how to sew soon so I can make my own clothes for my dolls and then, when I’m older I will make my own clothes too.”

Walburga’s eyes sparkled at that information. “Fascinating … and wouldn’t you want to make clothes for a sibling as well?”

Sirius, having had enough of her mother’s talk about giving Adriana siblings in front of him, butted into the conversation. “What is it with you and providing Adriana with siblings?” he snapped.

“She might be blood adopted into the family, but she will never be a true Black,” she told him tiredly. “Besides …” her expression turned calculated, “I read and hear that you married a Potions Master, practically a genius in potions … you both might be male, but I’m certain that if your husband put his head to it, he could come up with a way to make two men have a child together … Think about it.”

He would be lying if he said he didn’t want to have Severus’ child. Despite knowing that he didn’t have the anatomy to carry a child, a part of him still yearned and hoped for Severus’ seed to take root every time his husband filled him with his sperm. He liked imagining himself heavy with child … Severus’ child, but it would never be.

Walburga returned her attention to Adriana, who began asking her about her sickness and how bad it was. Walburga kept it vague and general, but Sirius could sense her condition was extremely grave and bad. She also asked her if she could give Kreacher a makeover, because he looked ugly in his pillowcase and with no hair. After receiving permission from Walburga to sew a new uniform for Kreacher and make him prettier, Adriana left the room with the elf to start taking his measurements and seeing which colour suited him best.

Once they were alone, Sirius asked, “How bad is it?”

“Bad enough that it will be a miracle if I live until Yule,” she admitted gravely. “I needed to speak with you and ask you to look after the house and Kreacher … I know your home is at Prince Manor, but … you can make this your summer house or you might come here every weekend to check on things and Kreacher. He can take care of it … but you know that if Kreacher isn’t bound to a master he will slowly wither away and if he dies … there will be no one to look after the house … and it will start falling apart.”

Sirius snorted. “This place is already falling apart.”

“Then … rebuild it into something that you will like to look at and visit … I know very well that you hate this place … for what it represents to you … but … don’t let it go to waste, Sirius.”

“I will think about it,” he said stiffly.

She sighed. “Before I became too weak to even stand on my own, I reinstated you into the family.” Sirius whipped his head in shock at her. “You can see yourself on the family tree again … with no scorching mark defacing your image.”

He wasn’t sure how he felt about it. “Why?” he choked out.

“Because if I died without doing it then everything would be over for this family,” she admitted. “… I recognise that … I was perhaps too harsh on you in many ways and on many occasions. We both said things that cannot be unheard and forgotten … perhaps not even forgiven … but for what is worth … I’m sorry. I’m sorry for making you suffer and feel like you didn’t matter … that it would have been better if you didn’t exist.”

Sirius’ eyes stung with unshed tears that collected on his eyelids and he did his best to will and blink them away.

“I … also left a will for you, where you are my sole heir to everything that concerns the Black Family. Take advantage of it.”

He nodded, swallowing hard.

“Severus Snape,” she turned to him, “the Heir and Lord of the Prince Family.” Severus tensed. “Quite a shock when I read it in the papers … Half-blood you may be … but at least you partially come from a good family. At this point in life, I cannot be picky about who is related to my family, but if you manage to find a way to make it so either you or my son can carry a child … I think that will make my parting from this world easier.”

She had another coughing fit that ended in her coughing blood.

“I will see what I can do about it.” That was as far as he was able to promise to the dying woman, but even if it took him years to develop a potion for male pregnancy, he would do it, because he wanted to have at least one biological child with Sirius.

She smiled tiredly. “Thank you.”

…

They visited her almost every day after that. Adriana seemed to like talking with Walburga and she showed her the dress designs for dolls she came up with in her special sketchbook and even offered to paint her nails with a Slytherin green nail polish she managed to find in a drugstore and do her face, but kept a safe distance as to not catch her disease. She also managed to make the uniform for Kreacher and even convince him to wear a wig for a while, until she herself concluded that he looked weird in a wig after all.

Sirius still had difficulties connecting with his mother even in her dying moments, but when she finally passed away before December, not even a month after they met again, he broke down in front of his husband (after Severus insisted he let go of his restraints on his emotions) and bawled his eyes out. Severus held him, without saying anything, and waited for Sirius to get it all out and cry himself to sleep.

They took care of her funeral and two weeks after her death, they had a will reading. As she had already told him, she left him everything and now, he was free to do with the property and money as he wished.

After a lot of talking with Severus and Adriana, he at least wanted to go through all the things in the house, renovate it and if even after that, he still didn’t feel inclined to live there, he would rent it out to people who might need a place to stay. As for Kreacher, he would either remain as a sort of host-slash-manager at Grimmauld Place or move with them to Prince Manor.

As Severus and he went through old artefacts, Sirius found a necklace … more like a locket. It had a large golden pendant with an emerald letter ‘S’ engraved in it. He didn’t remember ever seeing it, but he assumed it was something his mother probably acquired for herself after he left the house. Thinking it would be a waste to throw it away, when he had a big jewellery aficionado at home, he decided to give it to Adriana as a Yule present. Seeing her eyes sparkle when she saw the gold, shiny locket, he knew he made the right choice. After that, she always wore it no matter where she went.

…

As Adriana approached her eleventh birthday, Sirius and Severus dreaded the moment they would have to send her to Hogwarts. Dumbledore might not be the headmaster anymore, but that didn’t make parting with her easier on them. Therefore, they had to come up with a solution.

When they mentioned their problem to Remus, he suggested they seek employment near Hogwarts … or … even at Hogwarts. The Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching post was free, because no teacher was able to hold the position for more than a year, and Professor Slughorn was retiring from his position as Head of Slytherin and Potions Professor the following year, which was also going to be Adriana’s first year at Hogwarts.

Taking Remus up on his offer, both Sirius and Severus wrote a job application letter to McGonagall; Severus was applying for Potions and Head of Slytherin, while Sirius was applying for Defence.

Severus didn’t really like the idea of Sirius working as the Defence Professor when it was clear that the position had been cursed, especially since Severus was actively researching and developing a male pregnancy potion and they were trying for a child of their own, but when Sirius decided something, it was rare for him to change his mind. Therefore, the only thing Severus could do was keep an eye out for his husband so the curse didn’t take him to the grave for trying to bypass it and stick around for at least seven years or until Severus developed a successful formula for the male pregnancy potion and Sirius ended up pregnant.

Minerva gladly accepted them at Hogwarts as part of the staff and when they were required to take up residence at Hogwarts in August, they moved to the castle. It worked great for Adriana, who now had the advantage to explore the castle’s wonders and Hogsmeade on her own and at her heart’s content.

Not even a week passed, when Adriana showed up to dinner one evening wearing what looked to be a tiara … but not just any tiara, Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem. When asked how she managed to find it, she simply said it was a secret.

Aside from Adriana intently exploring the castle, she also vigorously spent most of her time sewing her clothes, because she refused to wear the school uniform, stocking her nail polishes and make-up, because she refused to spend a single school day without them, and pouring over skincare magazines, because she refused to have a single pimple on her face. She also began obsessing over her hair and nail potions, constantly making sure her hair and nails were healthy and strong and not a single hair was out of place or a single nail was chipped or broken. Because she also refused to look ‘naked’ in front of her dorm mates, she was also practising her privacy charms with her parents.

Severus and Sirius thought she was overdoing it, but since she showed interest in magic and spell work and potions, they let her do her own thing. It was better if she was obsessing over something than feeling bored or showing no interest at all. Besides, they both knew make-up, fashion and hairstyling made her happy, and she had the talent and the drive to do, and they wanted her to do what she felt most comfortable and happiest doing. And if that required convincing Minerva to allow her not to wear the school uniform and have free access to Hogsmeade so she could re-stock her make-up, skincare potions and cloth for her sewing whenever she needed to, then they would talk Minerva into it … somehow.

…

_Meanwhile, Inside Adriana’s mind_

He woke up on the softest material imaginable. Was it a cloud, because it sure felt like one? Giant soap bubbles floating across the blue sky filled with fluffy clouds and rainbows surrounded him.  Below, he could see a field of grass covered in flowers that stretched far beyond the horizon on all sides and an abundance of unicorns of all colours and sizes.

Was he dead and this was heaven? If it was, then maybe death wasn’t all that horrible.

The last thing he remembered was visiting the Potters, killing the father with a cutting curse and then going upstairs to kill the mother and the daughter. The mother was already dead when he arrived, but when he uttered the killing curse and directed it at the toddler, something inexplicable happened and now he was here … in some sort of paradise it would seem.

He remembered he had five horcruxes prior to the incident, so he wasn’t dead, but rather a horcrux perhaps. If that was the case, then the question was where in Salazar’s name did he end up?

…

After months of wondering, where he was, he managed to piece together from voices he heard occasionally that he was inside Adriana, the toddler that was destined to ruin him.

The irony of life.

If his counterpart wasn’t aware of this development, he ran the risk of the original coming after Adriana and consequently after him and he couldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t care less about what happened to the brat if things were different, but he was stuck with her as his host, therefore, he needed to make sure she was healthy, safe and alive. And if that meant turning against his own self when the time of reunion came, then so be it, because even as a horcrux, the only interests that mattered were his own, and if he couldn’t make things with the original work, he would take him down himself.

…

While the scenery was bright and fantastical, Voldemort still felt bored, because there wasn’t much he could do, except walk among flower fields, ride and pet unicorns, and observe the sky either from the ground or his cloud bed. Therefore, when after what felt like years instead of months, a toddler with curly black hair and bright emerald-green eyes with a scar on her forehead, wearing a bubble-gum pink dress, appeared in the middle of a meadow, it was exciting to, finally, have some company.

Since she was still young, she couldn’t even speak properly, her sentences lacked grammatical structure and her pronunciation was still shaky what with her butchering his name Marvolo into Maovo, but despite that, they managed to have a few simple conversations.

However, soon his enthusiasm and excitement started to diminish when most of their conversations revolved around dresses and hair and make-up and her newest unicorn toy or onesie and she wanted to play dress-up with him and style his hair. It got to the point where she was convinced she herself was a unicorn and he knew he had to do something about it.

“If you’re a unicorn, then, where is your horn?” he said.

“It still hasn’t grown,” she said back, frowning adorably.

“And why hasn’t it grown yet?” he pressed.

“Because I’m still small.”

“Even baby unicorns have small buds sticking out of their foreheads and you have nothing.”

“That’s because I’m special,” she said defensively, covering her forehead. “I’m a unicorn without a horn.”

“Then, you are not a unicorn, because the entire point of unicorns is their horn sticking out of their foreheads,” he insisted.

After that, she wasn’t happy with him. She called him mean and purposefully ignored him in favour of playing on her own, but she soon forgot why she was angry with him in the first place and quickly started speaking to him again, continued adoring unicorns and tried to make him wear matching unicorn onesies. Since he was in her mental domain and she had sway over it, he didn’t have much choice, so more often than not, he ended up wearing ridiculous outfits for her entertainment.

“See?” she said to him excitedly once; they were wearing unicorn onesies with a horned hoodie. “Now we both have unicorn horns on our heads, so we are both secretly unicorns.”

“Indeed,” he said, grumbling, “Unicorns with false unicorn horns.”

Despite his internal and external complaining about her tastes, he got used to it by the time she turned four and even started to derive amusement from it. Still, it felt good when, surprisingly, she encountered another horcrux, the locket.

How he got to Grimmauld place, he would most likely never know and honestly it didn’t really matter, because he finally had someone likeminded to talk to about things other than fashion and make-up and hair and jewellery and nails and unicorns.

They took advantage of the daytime while she was active to talk about their situation as horcruxes, potential dangers in the future when the original would come back to power and what he attempting to kill Adriana would mean for the shard inside her.

“If the situation was different, I wouldn’t care,” he admitted to his younger self, “but it’s my existence on the line here as well, and I refuse to perish because the original is determined to get rid of his ‘destined nemesis’. Have you seen Adriana? She’s obsessed with unicorns, dresses, hair, nails, jewellery and make-up; I can’t imagine her actively trying to kill Voldemort or anyone else … unless of course, Voldemort somehow managed to piss her off by purposefully messing up her dresses, hair, make-up or nails, but even then she would probably refrain.”

The locket agreed with his older self. “Speaking of which, how exactly do you put up with her ramblings?”

“It’s not like I have a choice,” he grumbled, “though I suppose it’s a matter of getting used to it and having a more positive outlook and attitude towards it. Though, I admit, it took me years to get used to her.”

“And should we tell her about what we are?” locket asked tentatively.

“I don’t see why we should, she’s four.”

“What about when she gets older?”

“We’ll see how things develop and then make a decision.”

They didn’t speak much on the subject again, until the time for her to attend Hogwarts came. That was when they decided to tell her a very simplified version of the situation, what she was and what the locket was and the only thing that she was unhappy about was the fact that Lord Voldemort was responsible for her scarred forehead.

“If I ever see him face to face, I’m going to tell him a few things,” she promised in a threatening voice. “Because if it wasn’t for the scar he gave me, my face would be perfect, but _no_ , I’m stuck with this horrendous scar for life.” She huffed, annoyed. “At least it’s a good way to see which concealers and foundations are full coverage. If they can cover my scar, they can cover any pimple or skin discolouration.”

Shortly after that conversation, they decided to tell her about a secret room at the castle, where they have hidden the diadem, as a way to give her a belated birthday present (in reality, they both wanted extra ‘manpower’ to protect Adriana from the original).

Adriana was immediately interested and enthusiastic about it, not because of the extra company, though she appreciated that as well, no, what excited her primarily was the fact that she would have her own tiara to wear every day. She might not be a unicorn, though she still considered them her spirit animal, but she was a princess … at least in her fathers’ eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure what you will think about Walburga in this story, but I wanted her to acknowledge her mistakes with Sirius and try and mend the relationship in some capacity with her last remaining son.
> 
> As for Sirius' method of making Adriana walk, I remember I was watching Rosanna Pansino's video 'What's in my pantry?' or something and when she picked up a box of cereal, she said that her mother did that with her. She even inserted the clip of it and I thought it would fit to have Sirius (a dog animagus) train his daughter how to walk as if she were a dog 😆


	7. A Brief Overview of Adriana’s First Four Years at Hogwarts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snippets of Adriana's first four years at Hogwarts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy the chapter! 🤗💕

Minerva let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Severus, Sirius, as much as I adore Adriana, I can’t treat her differently from the rest,” she told them. “Because if I let her wear whatever she wants, then I have to allow any student who would want to wear their clothing of choice to wear what they want to wear.”

“Then, allow them,” argued Sirius as if it were the most obvious thing to do. “There are still two weeks before the school starts, it should be enough time to notify everyone about the change in policy.”

“You think it’s that simple?” huffed Minerva incredulously. “The uniforms are the primary distinguisher between the houses: the badges, the colours of ties and certain elements on the uniforms show to which Hogwarts house a student belongs, if we make them optional, we would have a group of students who wouldn’t be as easily distinguishable as the rest.”

“Maybe have them display their Hogwarts house in a different way,” suggested Severus.

“How?”

“Have their Hogwarts house badge on their school bags or have stickers of their Hogwarts house on their school belongings. You could even have them wear jewellery in their Hogwarts house crest, or any similar way.”

Minerva remained quiet, thinking over Severus’ suggestion. After a long silence, she said, “Very well. I will make uniforms non-compulsory, but only if you and Sirius create a list of all possible alternatives how the students can show to which house they belong without having to wear their school uniform.”

Sirius smiled, walked up to Minerva, pulled her in a hug, and placed a kiss on her cheek much to her surprise. “Thank you, Minnie,” he said, grinning, “You’re the best.”

…

In the span of two days, Sirius and Severus managed to come up with an exhaustive list of ways a student could show their affiliation with one of the four Hogwarts houses without having to wear the school uniform in the house colours.

They expanded the three ideas that they already proposed to Minerva and added house-themed stationery items (such as quills, inkbottles, parchment paper with Hogwarts house watermarks, muggle notebooks and pens), house-themed keychains, and even house-themed school bags. For the daring, they even suggested temporary tattoos in Hogwarts houses in a visible part of the body such as the back of the hand, but also neck, as an option.

They were sure that they might have overlooked something, but they were certain they have come up with enough alternatives anyone could find a way to express their house affiliation. After contacting a printing house and jewellery makers to see how much it would cost to undertake such an endeavour, Minerva called for staff as well as Board of Governors meetings to present the idea to them and to give reasons in favour of such a change without disclosing that it was because of Adriana.

The staff didn’t really have much against it, they thought it was actually refreshing to introduce something like that, however, the parents were split almost down the middle in their opinion. Some saw it as a welcome change that would allow some of their kids to express themselves as they wished through fashion, the only concern for them were the finances of the project, while others, mostly traditional purebloods such as Lucius Malfoy, were against such change since it went against school tradition and therefore against magical tradition.

“Mr. Malfoy, should your son want to uphold the school tradition by wearing the school uniform, he can do that. In fact, it is encouraged he do so, however, students who do not wish to wear school uniforms can now have the opportunity to dress as they wish without being penalised for it and find a different venue of showing affiliation,” said Minerva sternly.

Fortunately, when the time to cast their votes came, the majority voted to approve of the change on the condition that the house-themed accessories and stationery would be readily available at the school by September 1st.

With ten days to the start of term, Minerva and Filius called for another staff meeting, where every teacher was provided with a list of students that they would have to write to inform them of the new change in clothing policy.

With Severus and Sirius’ permission, Minerva and Filius took Adriana with them, because if there was anyone who had an eye for designing things, it was Adriana, who seemed to live and breathe her creations. She was in charge of designing the stationery and the jewellery, while the two adults were responsible for negotiating the amount, the material and the final price.

When Minerva approached Adriana with the proposition, Adriana was ecstatic about it and devoted two entire days to designing the products. She did her best to keep it simple, because the school didn’t want to spend too much money on these items, even though Adriana’s creative juices were itching to put as much bling and details as they could. Despite the simplicity of the designs, she still strived to make them elegant, because she would rather renounce as an artist and designer than to produce anything cheap looking even though the prices of the materials and the final product might be low.

…

When September came, Minerva let her stay at the school, instead of going to King’s Cross and boarding the Hogwarts Express like the rest of the students. While her fellow students were travelling, she made sure to wear her best dress, a flawless no-makeup makeup, nice shoes, an elegant hairdo, and nail art. And, of course, her look wouldn’t be complete without her princess tiara.

When the sorting began, she joined the rest of the first years. Her name caused silence and then murmurs and whispers. Ignoring them, she walked regally to the stool and sat down with a straight back, placing her hands gracefully on her lap, and crossed her legs at the ankles and waited for the hat to call out a Hogwarts house. To be perfectly honest, she didn’t really have a preference and she didn’t pay attention to the popularity of certain houses over the others or their reputations. She just wanted to do what she liked to do and learn new things that would enrich her career path and she could do that no matter the house.

The hat, recognising her interests, her drive, her motivation, her determination and, at the end of the day, her ambition, placed her in Slytherin, a fact that shocked the entire school for about half a minute. In the meantime, Adriana graciously made her way to the Slytherin table, until her fathers started the applause.

She greeted her nearest housemates and made some small talk with them, breaking any kind of tension that might have built up due to her sorting. After noticing an upperclassman boy with problematic skin, she started lecturing him on skincare and giving him advice on how he could get rid of his acne and prevent a breakout as bad as that one.

“Personally, I would recommend drinking lemonade every morning and evening for at least three weeks, and then you should notice significant reduction in redness and the size and amount of acne. You would still have a pimple here and there because of the hormones in your body, but that’s completely normal. Also, use a slightly diluted lemon juice as face tonic every night and make sure to wash your face at least once a day because during the day, your skin sweats, it gets oily on its own, your surface skin cells start to die, and your pores start to clog and that’s what causes pimples. If lemon juice is too strong for your skin, green tea is perfect too for drinking and in different skin care products for external use. Then, make sure to scrub your skin, not just face but body as well, at least twice a week to get rid of any dead skin cells and make sure your skin is moisturised. Having a good sleeping routine and a balanced diet helps too, and drinking lots of water.”

When an upperclassman girl asked her why not just use the Beautification potion instead, Adriana expressed her visceral revulsion of using such a product.

“It’s a cheap way of ‘bettering’ yourself,” she grimaced. “I don’t care how perfect someone looks or acts after taking it, you take the Beautification potion and you are nothing but a fake to me. And yes, I may paint my face to cover things up, but I’d rather do that and spend thirty to forty minutes every morning putting on makeup in addition to my morning skincare routine and styling my hair than to be artificially perfect. It’s like having a thousand plastic surgeries in one. At least I would know I put in the effort to look and feel good,” she said in a holier-than-thou manner, waving her hands in exaggerated movements.

“And what if someone likes certain physical imperfections, like moles, freckles, scars, or even crooked teeth, or overweight people? The potion would remove those attractive attributes as well in an effort to make one ‘perfect’. Now that I think about it, on what does the potion base perfection on? What the drinker considers perfect or what society and culture think is beautiful and perfect? Because let me tell you, some women like men with beer bellies, hairy chests and backs, with big noses, who do nothing but sit around the house all day with legs on the table, who burp and fart loudly and who stink of sweat a little.”

The students who heard her didn’t know what to say to that.

…

At first, some were trying to approach Adriana to ask about her scar, to get an autograph or a picture with her or to make friend requests. Every time something like that happened, Adriana would look at the person with such a look that the person on the receiving end started sweating, feeling stupid, stuttering, or flushing in embarrassment, and all that before she even said anything, but when she opened her mouth, all of the above only intensified.

If you asked her about the scar, she usually said, “Why do you want to know about it or see it? Do you see me going around asking people about any potential scars, injuries and birthmarks on any part of their bodies? No, you don’t. So, I don’t know why you are asking me something so personal and delicate.”

If you asked her for an autograph or a picture, she would say, “And what are you going to do with it? In fact, I don’t even know why you want it anyway, as far as I can recall I did nothing that would justify me handing out autographs and accepting pictures with people … yet.”

If you asked her to be your friend, she liked to say, “Why do you want to be my friend? Do you want to be my friend because of my alleged defeat of Lord Voldemort as an infant or because you actually want to get to know me? Because, if it’s the former then I don’t want to waste my time with shallow people like you, if it’s the latter, well, I’ll be the judge of it, because I don’t make friends lightly, acquaintances, yes, but not friends.”

After two weeks of such answers, people stopped approaching her with questions that would warrant such answers altogether. As students who were more observant could tell, Adriana only seemed prone to talking in excess when it came to unicorns, fashion, makeup, hair and nails … health and beauty in general. Therefore, unless you wanted to ask for advice on how to improve your diet, your looks, your fashion or anything else on yourself without physically altering your appearance through potions or spells, or wanted to compliment and discuss her designs, it was better not to talk to her at all. She did talk about schoolwork too, if you asked her, but her answers were very short and standard.

One would think that her obsession with health and beauty would hinder her academic success, but it was quite the opposite. She thrived in subjects that played a major role in those two things like Herbology and Potions, but also Charms and Transfiguration. She put extra effort in Defence to at least get an E, despite not liking the subject that much, for her father Siri, and she put the minimum effort into Astronomy and History, because she could afford a couple of subjects that weren’t E (Transfiguration and DADA) or O (Potions, Herbology and Charms).

She noticed that most people disliked History with a passion because it was dull and boring, and she definitely felt bored during History … until she discovered the perfect way to pass the time during lectures. Whether it was coming up with designs for her new clothes, reading scientific articles about health benefits of certain foods and drinks or about different potions, plants and their use in skincare and makeup products, painting her nails or touching up her makeup, she never again felt bored in History class. If anything, it was one of her favourite subjects.

Since Adriana was one of many who opted to replace the school uniform for their everyday clothes, she bought every single stationery item and jewellery featuring Slytherin colours and crest, except the tattoo, she would refrain from using that one. It wasn’t required of her to buy everything Slytherin-related to show her affiliation, but those designs were her babies, so of course, she would own everything Slytherin she created.

Despite her wealth, exaggerated and blunt way of talking, and other peculiar mannerisms, Adriana was a rather popular individual among all years and houses, and of course the teachers as well. She was well behaved, diligent, didn’t disrupt the class and didn’t get into troubles. While some students were initially wary of her status as a Slytherin, they soon realised that she was willing to help anyone who wanted her help, be it muggleborn, half-blood or pureblood, Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw … and with nothing in return.

Aside from apparently opening a beauty salon and a fashion boutique within Hogwarts, Adriana’s first year passed by quickly and with no incidents. She spent most of her time, when she wasn’t doing schoolwork, either giving people advice, spending weekends and certain hours during the week with her fathers or doing her own thing. 

It wasn’t until after the end of the year that she and Papa Sev had a scare when Sirius tripped on the staircase and fell down an entire flight of stairs. He didn’t break anything, but he _did_ sprain his ankle and acquired several bruises all over his body. The incident happened after Minerva had told him that since there were no incidents during the year, his DADA teaching contract had been renewed for another year.

Severus thought the curse was to blame and Sirius just said that he fell because he wasn’t careful enough and that it was an accident. Adriana only cared about the fact that Sirius was all right, because she didn’t want to lose him. Neither him nor Severus.

…

With Madam Pomfrey’s help and Severus’ potions, Sirius recovered in a little less than a week. She still advised him not to make abrupt movements or to overburden his injured leg.

“Can I have sex with Severus?” asked Sirius desperate, because if he wasn’t allowed to have sex with his husband until fully healed, he would go crazy.

“If you can find a position that doesn’t require you to put weight or strain on your injured ankle then yes, if not, too bad for you,” she told him sternly.

After Severus and Sirius handed in their teaching reports and the school was officially about to close for the summer, the staff organised a picnic on the school grounds to celebrate the start of the holidays.

…

She spent half of her summer holidays at Prince Manor and half of them at Hogwarts, coming up with new ideas for clothes and making them a reality. She experimented with different themes and styles, drawing inspiration from cultures all around the world. It was her goal to make enough clothes eventually so she could wear a different set of clothes every day of the year. In the same vein, she expanded her hairstyling repertoire so she could also create a new hairdo every single day of the year.

She celebrated her twelfth birthday at Hogwarts with her fathers and the Hogwarts staff, and got her first period the following day. She was preparing herself mentally for it, but it was still a shock to wake up with a weird wet sensation between your legs, bloodied panties and sheets and thank Merlin it was the holidays, because she didn’t want to experience something of this magnitude in a dorm full of other girls and panic in their vicinity. Because the image one portrayed to the outside world was everything to her. Merlin forbid someone saw her without make-up. She would feel naked and exposed even if her skin was flawless, because just like one didn’t walk around without clothes that’s how she felt about make-up.

…

Her second year passed without a hitch, though she increasingly started to dislike Defence. She didn’t like putting herself in situations that could potentially ruin her make-up and clothes, mess up her hair or break her nails, and she didn’t see how Defence was useful for beauty and health, aside from a few counter-jinxes to spells that caused one’s entire face to be covered in boils and other skin-related jinxes and curses. However, she ploughed through the subject for the sake of her father Sirius.

She really liked him as a teacher, but why did he have to teach a subject she disliked with a passion? She was aware her fathers were trying for a child and while she wasn’t all that eager to have a sibling, she was praying for Severus to develop a successful formula soon and for Sirius to retire so she could stop putting this much effort into Defence, when she could be spending that time doing things that she adored.

For her electives the following year, she heard that the Magical Creatures class talked about unicorns, so, of course she had to take that subject. The second elective was a bit tricky, but ultimately, she decided to go with Ancient runes, because she read about their use in protective jewellery and clothing.

When school let out and the teachers were finishing their yearly teaching report, Sirius had another suspicious accident.

The teachers hosted another picnic. This time, they decided to play a round of Quidditch. Her father Sirius was of course among the enthusiasts who participated in the barbaric sport. He decided to play as the beater. Most of the game was fine, until he apparently somehow miscalculated his swing and was hit by the ball directly into the chest, breaking several ribs and perforating one of his lungs. He lost control of the broom and fell down.

He probably would have hit his head and broken a few bones more or worse, if it weren’t for Severus yelling Arresto Momentum and Remus performing a cushioning charm at the same time. The impact to the chest rendered him unconscious and for a moment, it looked like he stopped breathing. They immediately transported him to the infirmary where Poppy took care of his injuries.

Adriana never felt so scared in her life. Seeing Sirius falling down, barely breathing was something she never wanted to see again.

Severus was convinced it had something to do with the curse, yet Sirius again blamed his own clumsiness for the event and called it an accident. As for Adriana, she was starting to believe it was more than mere coincidence and was starting to be more inclined to agree with Severus. How was it possible, that Sirius didn’t have any accidents, minor or major, during the year, yet when the school year ended, something life-threatening happened to him? Something was not okay.

…

July was peaceful, yet August before her third year was a prelude to the worst nightmare of her life.

Whatever was trying to get rid of Sirius from Hogwarts was starting to increase the number of life-threatening incidents. On one occasion, a flowerpot almost landed on Sirius’ head. On another, he slipped on some plasma and hit his head. The day before the start of term, his drink somehow ended up poisoned, sending him half-dead to the infirmary again.

Severus tried to convince Sirius to quit, but Sirius refused by saying it was too late to look for a replacement. Severus was growing more exasperated with every attempt on his husband’s life, yet he couldn’t do anything about what was trying to kill his husband and that made him feel helpless.

After missing his first week of classes, Sirius returned to his teaching post as if he hadn’t just survived a poisoning. He was lively and full of jokes like always. However, by the end of September, his energy visibly depleted and he was coming to class pale, exhausted, with more and more pronounced dark circles under his eyes and shaky limbs.

She confronted her parents about Sirius’ condition and learnt he had been having difficulty sleeping because he was suffering night terrors. They didn’t tell her the details not to worry her, but not knowing what horrible things her Papa Siri was dreaming every night that he couldn’t sleep was equally worrying.

After a month of constant night terrors, where Sirius barely got three or four hours of sleep each night, Severus finally prescribed him small doses of Dreamless Sleep potion to give him some semblance of peace, but feared Sirius might develop an addiction to it if he took it for more than a month.

November was peaceful and Sirius was showing signs of betterment, so Adriana focussed on her schoolwork and projects, but felt her strong dislike for Defence grow into pure aversion and hatred. Whoever and whatever was doing this to her father, should suffer what her father was going through … tenfold.

In December, when Sirius stopped using Dreamless Sleep, the night terrors returned with more force, until just before the Yule holidays, he collapsed in the middle of his O.W.L. class. Adriana heard about the incident from her housemates that before he collapsed, he started bleeding from his nose, mouth, ears and eyes, and he had to be shipped to the infirmary, after Poppy performed first aid in the classroom.

“It was horrible,” said the fifth-year Slytherin girl Prefect. “One minute he was completely fine and the next, there was blood coming out of his face and he collapsed, twitching.”

Adriana was excused from her classes for the rest of the day to be with her father and Severus in the infirmary. Thank Merlin she was wearing waterproof make-up, otherwise, her mascara and foundation would have been ruined when she started crying at the sight of a half-dead Sirius.

…

When Yule holidays rolled by, Minerva hired a group of Aurors and Curse-breakers to be rid of the curse, before Sirius ended up six feet underground, but even the elite couldn’t do anything to remove it. They prescribed protective charms and talismans, and changing the location of DADA office and classroom to try to minimise the extent of the curse, and ward both with extra protective wards.

Sirius finally accepted that something was indeed trying to kill him, but still refused to quit, mostly out of stubbornness not to give the fucker who cursed the position the satisfaction of chasing him away, but also because he liked what he was doing. Something that caused a fight between her fathers.

“I’m going to bring this generation of students successfully through their end-of-term exams, O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s and there’s nothing that will stop me from doing that,” Sirius said, determined.

“As admirable as your sentiment is, you don’t seem to grasp the seriousness of the events,” snarled Severus.

“In case you’ve forgotten, I have been on the receiving end of all of them, so of course I fucking get it,” snapped Sirius back.

“Well apparently you don’t!” yelled Severus, neither of the men realising Adriana was standing just outside their room, squeezing her unicorn toys, with tears in her eyes. “Because if you did, you would have quit as Defence Professor by now! You would have stopped being so stubborn and just let go of the position that is clearly trying to kill you!”

“You think it’s just that simple, do you?!” yelled Sirius back furiously. “Tell me, would you quit your job if you were in my position?”

“If it meant I didn’t put you or Adriana through heart-stopping anguish every single fucking time it happened, more than gladly!”

That made Sirius pause in shock.

“How many times will I have to see you get hurt, Sirius?” prompted him Severus, his voice cracking towards the end. “How many times will I have to be on the verge of losing you before you finally get it through that thick skull of yours that if you continue teaching Defence, you might end up dead any day now? You would be willing to leave Adriana and me behind, because you couldn’t swallow that Gryffindor pride and stubbornness and just quit?”

“Severus … I …” Sirius sounded like he wanted to cry too.

“Don’t ‘Severus’ me,” said Severus in a cold voice. “I need air. I can’t be here right now.”

Adriana heard footsteps get closer and she hid in a dark corner. The door flew open with force and banged against the wall. It startled her.

“Severus where are you going?” she heard Sirius calling after him from within the room.

Severus stormed out, not looking behind or answering.

“Severus!” Sirius called, before letting out a strangled sob. Adriana approached the door, peaked inside, and saw her father on the knees, muffling his sobs, while tears ran down his cheeks. Her own tears spilled over as she made a few tentative steps into the room.

Sirius felt her presence and his eyes snapped up to her figure and immediately started to wipe his cheeks with the sleeves of his shirt. “Adri, what are you doing here?” he said in a light tone, until he spotted her tear-stricken face and immediately realised she heard them.

A melancholic smile spread across his face. “You heard that, didn’t you? Severus and I fighting.”

She didn’t say anything, only ran up to him and hugged him around the neck and sobbed and hiccoughed into his shoulder. That broke him again and he wrapped his arms around her, desperately hugging her to him as violent sobs wrecked his body.

“I’m s-sorry, Adri,” he choked out in between hiccoughs. “I’m s-so s-sorry for making you worry and scared for me. I love you. I love you so much. You and Sev both.”

“Then why w-won’t you quit?” she hiccoughed, snot coming out of her nose.

“Oh, Adri,” he looked at her with a watery smile, caressing her hair. “Would you quit designing, sewing, painting your nails, doing make-up?”

She shook her head violently.

“Why not?” he insisted.

“Because I like doing all that more than anything in this world,” she said, wiping her tears away.

“Then there’s your answer why I can’t just quit this job,” he said, smiling. “I may have never thought I would enjoy teaching this much, what with how I was as a student, but I like working with kids and teenagers, guiding them, teaching them, giving them advice, probably because I’ve done some pretty shitty things myself as a kid and teen and I don’t want others to do the same things. And if I quit for any other reason than getting pregnant, I would be failing my students.” He sniffed. “But if I don’t quit, I am disappointing Severus and hurting him and you … I don’t want to die, but I don’t want to quit either.”

Adriana nodded in understanding and hugged him again. “I love you, Papa Siri.”

…

Severus and Sirius didn’t speak until next evening, mostly because Severus was giving Sirius the cold shoulder, whenever he attempted any sort of interaction with him on the corridors or in the Great Hall, he even had the elves serve him lunch in the office.

They were preparing for bed, Severus going about his business without looking at Sirius. He was about to lie down, facing away, when Sirius gathered the courage to talk and make him listen and look.

“Severus, I’m sorry,” he said. Severus paused in his movements, but didn’t look his way. He stepped closer. “I’m sorry for putting you through pain, but please, understand that the students need me.” He let out a sigh, trying to express it in words without being reduced to tears in the process. “I know I probably wouldn’t even give teaching a try if it weren’t for us deciding to stay close to Adri if she needed us at school, but … it’s not just her anymore, Severus. I like teaching. I like surrounding myself with youthful energy, helping them choose careers, steer them onto the right path in life.”

Finally, Severus turned with pained eyes. “You idiot,” he breathed. “Don’t you think I know that? But just like how you are asking me to understand your desire to teach, I want you to understand that I just can’t keep going through the same shit over and over again.” His eyes shined with tears, as he fought to keep his voice even. “I can’t keep getting notified of you being in the infirmary, each time worse than the previous one. I can’t keep watching you bedridden, in pain, suffering. Because I can’t stop thinking that the next time someone notifies me about you, it will be to tell me you are dead.”

Sirius threw himself at Severus, embracing him. “I’m not going to let the curse kill me,” he assured him, whispering into his ear and neck. Severus wrapped his own arms around him and held him tightly.

“You haven’t been doing a convincing job so far,” muttered Snape softly, nuzzling his hair and inhaling his scent.

“I will do better from now on,” smiled Sirius. “Unless of course, you manage to get me pregnant in the following year.” He added playfully.

“You can be sure I will put even more effort into the formula, if only I can get a break from all the heart attacks I keep suffering every time you’re in the Hospital Wing.”

“I love you, Sev.” He nuzzled his nose.

“And I love you, Siri.”

They kissed with urge and need, yet far from making it fast, they took the time to savour each kiss, each sensation and made love until dawn. Thank Merlin they didn’t have classes the next day.

…

After changing the location of the office and classroom and arming Sirius with protective charms of all kinds, the second semester of Adriana’s third year passed without incidents concerning Sirius’ well-being. Yet far from feeling complacent with the situation, Adriana prayed to Mother Magic every single night before sleeping to give her parents a child, because that was the only way to get Sirius away for at least one entire school year. In turn, she promised to work hard at school and on her projects. In fact, she promised to dedicate an entire collection of clothes in her honour and wear it for an entire month.

…

When she expressed her disappointment with her Care of Magical Creatures course for not featuring unicorns until fourth year, but instead had to handle Flobberworms and Salamanders, her fathers decided to surprise her with unicorns by taking her to the Forbidden Forest for her fourteenth birthday. When they took off the blindfold and she caught glimpses of unicorns, she felt overwhelmed with joy and excitement.

Her fathers stepped back so the majestic creatures could approach Adriana. An entire herd approached her, letting her pet them, hug them and even ride them. She cooed over them and they in turn nibbled her hair and licked her face. This was probably the only time she would endure such treatment, because … unicorns.

Being in the presence of unicorns felt like spa treatment for Adriana’s soul, because it felt like it washed away all the negative energy that built up inside her during the first semester of her third year, and the stress was not good for her health and skin.

After that, she visited the school unicorns every weekend and continued with her visits to the Forbidden Forest even after school started again.

…

First semester of her fourth year ended with Severus finally perfecting his male pregnancy potion that allowed males to have the temporary ability to conceive. They spent most of the Yule holidays locked in their room trying for a child and Adriana only hoped it would work.

Towards the end of January, Sirius started to experience some of the standard pregnancy symptoms, nausea, tiredness and vertigo. When Severus and Poppy performed a few diagnostic pregnancy spells on him, they confirmed Sirius was indeed with child.

Her fathers were ecstatic with the news and Adriana was squealing in celebration as well. She enthusiastically reported to her housemates who congratulated her and she graciously accepted their well wishes. 

“I just wish it’s a girl,” she said, when they asked her whether she wanted a sister or a brother, “because then I can dress her up, do her hair, you know, introduce her to the wonderful world of make-up and fashion and the like. I would design princess clothes for her and just connect with her.”

“What if she ends up being a tomboy?” asked one of the boys.

Adriana gasped, horrified at the thought. She looked as if she was about to faint. Two of her dorm mates were immediately by her side, holding her upright, fanning her. “Breathe, Adriana, breathe,” they encouraged her.

After taking a few deep breathes, holding her chest, she addressed the boy who suggested such an outrageous thing. “Perish the thought,” she breathed. “Perish the thought. Don’t jinx it by mentioning it aloud. My baby sister will not be a tomboy. She will be a fairy princess, wearing beautiful dresses, like her big sister.”

“And what if it’s a boy?”

She grimaced and let out a groan. “If it’s a boy, I can’t do anything about it, but I won’t know how to play with him. I would still design boy clothes for him at least, but playing in the mud or hunting insects and building mud castles and whatnot, that is out of the question. The most I’m willing to play with him is passing the ball indoors, and hide-and-seek, tag is already ruled out because he might grab onto my clothes and tear them or dirty them and I won’t have that.”

“If you want,” said a Slytherin first-year, “we could play with him.”

Adriana’s eyes sparkled. “You would really do that?” she squealed excitedly. When she received a nod from most of the younger students, she got emotional, but refused to cry in public.

…

Since Sirius was a well-respected and well-loved teacher at Hogwarts, the students, together with the staff, gave him congratulatory greetings as soon as the news of his pregnancy spread like wildfire through the entire school.

When just before the Easter holidays the sex of the baby was confirmed, Adriana tried her best to hide her disappointment over the fact that it was going to be a baby boy. However, she was determined on focussing on the positive side of things, such as designing baby clothes and doing things with him that didn’t require her to get dirty.

At the beginning of June, Sirius announced his one-year retirement as the DADA Professor, but assured them he would still be available should they need help of any kind, since he would still be living at Hogwarts with his husband and daughter.

As a way to thank him for being a cool teacher, students of all years and houses joined together to give him baby things and well-wishing handmade cards, something that brought tears to Sirius’ eyes.

…

Because Sirius couldn’t apparate, Adriana and her parents spent the entire July renting a couple of rooms in an inn in Hogsmeade. Severus and Sirius shared theirs and Adriana had hers all to herself. It was her first time in an establishment such as this, and while she was concerned over the quality and cleanliness of the place, it felt like an adventure. She couldn’t wait to tell her housemates how living in an inn felt like.

In August, Minerva published a job advertisement in the Daily Prophet and only got one applicant, who was interested in working as DADA Professor. His name was Lawrence Nightingale. He was rather young, twenty-three and had light-brown hair, sky-blue eyes, freckles, a Greek nose, and sharp, aristocratic features. He was also very polite and charming, and he seemed overly interested in her tiara and necklace.

“The necklace was a gift from my father Sirius when I was four after my grandmother Walburga passed away, and the tiara was something I found here in the castle,” she said passive-aggressively, when he asked her about them.

“And do you know you’re wearing Salazar Slytherin’s locket and Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem?” he pressed and she could have sworn his eyes glinted red for a second.

“So what?” she said, unimpressed. “Both the necklace and the tiara are mine now, what do I care who they belonged to before anyway?”

“They are historical artefacts of great value.”

Adriana rolled her eyes at that and ended the conversation quickly by excusing herself to go work on her baby brother’s clothes.

The staff welcomed him whole-heartedly into their midst, especially after learning about the tragic loss of his parents, being homeless and bankrupt, while Adriana couldn’t care less about him. Sure, she felt sympathy for what he had to go through, because she didn’t want to go through something like that either, but she still disliked him, even when he hadn’t done anything to her directly. It was probably because he was teaching her most hated subject, but there was something about him she couldn’t quite put her fingers on that just screamed fake to her.

The three Marvolos seemed wary of the new professor as well, because they were telling her to be careful around him and to tell them if he was acting strange towards her.

Two weeks before school began; Sirius went into labour. He was giving a tour and explaining things to Professor Nightingale, when it happened. Lawrence helped him reach the Hospital Wing and informed Severus and Adriana about it. They both raced to the infirmary and accompanied Sirius during the entire process.

Adriana tried to focus on her father, but her attention inevitably drifted to whatever was happening around his stomach area. She caught a glimpse of her father’s open abdomen with blood and exposed muscle tissue and whatnot and she felt nauseous and light-headed. Before she knew it, she fainted and had to be placed on the bed next to Sirius.

When she came to, Felix Snape-Black was born and Adriana focussed all of her energy into making baby clothes and fawning over her cute baby brother. She couldn’t wait for her schoolmates to meet him.

…

_Meanwhile, Inside Adriana’s mind_

“Do you feel that?” asked Marvolo the other two horcruxes suddenly.

Locket and Diadem focussed on the feeling Marvolo was referring. “Yes.”

“It’s him,” said Marvolo. “The original is here.”

“What do we do about him?” wanted to know Diadem.

“For now, nothing,” answered Marvolo. “We wait and observe what he does and at the slightest sign of murder intent, we intervene.”

The other two nodded and said, “Understood.”

“Do we inform Adriana about him?” wondered Locket.

“Just that she should be careful around him, but nothing much.”

…

As soon as school started, the three horcruxes felt the presence of another horcrux. Because of how strong the pull was, they speculated it was the diary. Who on Earth thought it a good idea to bring it to Hogwarts?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Voldemort and Adriana finally meet and neither is particularly impressed with the other 😅 and the diary also made an appearance. 
> 
> As for why the Aurors couldn't remove the curse ... I imagine Voldemort would go for a parseltongue curse that couldn't be removed even by highly trained professionals. So, great job to Sirius for surviving for so long, though there were several close calls and a lot of mental suffering involved.


	8. Voldemort Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Voldemort became Lawrence Nightingale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter deals with sensitive topics: mentions of mobbing ('workplace bullying'), mentions of suicide, and what I would describe as 'soul cannibalism'. There are also mentions of murder in the chapter, but you should expect it in a chapter that focuses on Voldemort.

After losing his body to the rebounded Killing Curse, Voldemort, who was still dazed about what exactly transpired in that nursery, immediately sought out Nagini and possessed her. Then, they took refuge in one of the British forests, where he periodically possessed other snakes as to not put too much strain on Nagini.

At first, he tried to comprehend what went wrong that night at the Potters. He retraced his steps one by one that night, yet, no matter how many times he played the events of that night, he was no closer to having a clear and definitive answer than before.

He knew the mudblood being dead upon him entering the nursery was unusual and suspicious and the almost humanoid shape stopping the curse and lunging it back at him felt off and strange. It almost felt like another entity was in the room that night.

An image of a horned head made of bright green flames flashed before him.

Could it have been a demon? Would the Mudblood have been willing to perform dark magic under threat, even at the cost of her own soul? She must have been desperate enough to do it, in order to save her child from him.

Clever, even for a Mudblood, and since she liked to proclaim how light she was, even going as far as to oppose him with her husband and joining forces with Dumbledore, he didn’t anticipate such development.

He had read about demons; they were greedy and while they got the job done, they usually demanded your life for one measly one-time favour. Something that worked in his favour. The horcruxes kept his soul tied to this plane even without a body and the brat didn’t have any sort of protection anymore, meaning that, once he acquired a body, he would seek her out and get rid of her.

While it sounded simple, getting a functioning human body wasn’t so easy. At least not his own body. Luckily, in this wraith form, he was able to possess people and animals alike.

It took almost fourteen years to come across a good enough body … even if it belonged to a muggleborn. At the very least, he would be able to perform magic.

…

It was one early August morning, when Nagini alerted him that there was someone in the forest.

At first, he thought some muggles were hiking in the vicinity, so they went to check. Instead, they came across a young man tying a rope with a noose on one end to one of the tree trunks. They observed him for a while, and during their observation, Nagini informed him that the person attempting to commit suicide was a wizard.

Voldemort got an idea, if the person was desperate enough to kill himself, then he could offer a bargain that would benefit both of them.

He left the body of the snake he was possessing and levitated in his wraith form in front of the man, who had had stepped on the stool and was trying to put the noose around his neck.

“This is my first time seeing a wizard come to a forest to kill himself,” he said in a soft, hissing voice.

His sudden greeting startled the man and made him lose his balance. He landed on his backside, staring petrified up at him.

“W-Who are you?” his voice trembled.

“A spirit of this forest,” he replied in a chuckle.

“Do you have a name?”

Voldemort hesitated. “I had … once, but being a spirit for so long … I have forgotten it. And you? Who are you?”

“I’m Lawrence,” he said. “Lawrence Nightingale.”

“Nice to meet you Lawrence,” he spoke politely.

“H-How do you know I’m a w-wizard?” he stammered, in an accent that was not British, Scottish, or Irish.

“I can sense your magic, my dear child. Just like I can sense your distress,” he added, in mock concern. “What is the matter? Why would a young soul want to take their own life, when I could never come to terms with my death?”

“I can’t take it anymore,” he confessed brokenly. “I can’t deal with my co-workers making my life miserable when all I want is do my job.”

“And what do you do?”

“I’m an Auror,” he replied. “Or rather, I was one until yesterday. I sent a resignation letter this morning.”

“You aren’t from around here, are you?”

“I’m an American. I recently moved here. I applied for the Law Enforcement Department at the British Ministry of Magic, I got the job, but I’ve been suffering nothing but mockery, insults, humiliations and unsavoury pranks from my co-workers ever since I started working.” He broke down, sobbing.

Voldemort wasn’t sure what to say to him to comfort him, so he stayed silent and let Lawrence calm down on his own.

“I-I’ve t-tried to focus on my w-work, ignore t-them, but it only made the situation w-worse,” he managed to get out in between hiccoughs. “A c-couple of months ago, w-we had a mission and my t-teammates d-decided that they needed some target practice b-before the r-real deal, so they c-cursed me s-so bad I had to stay in St. Mungo’s for an entire month.”

He broke down again.

“While I was recovering, they c-came to v-visit to appear like g-good co-workers and while they were t-there, they – they told me to kill myself, because I’m a waste of space, time and air.”

“And you will let those bastards have the satisfaction and actually kill yourself?” Voldemort asked incredulously. “Don’t you have a family or something?”

Lawrence shook his head. “I’m an only child. No aunts, uncles or grandparents … and my parents died when I was eighteen, barely out of Ilvermorny.”

“And how did they die?”

“Gas poisoning. There was a gas leak in our apartment. My parents were taking an afternoon nap and didn’t notice it. I was in my American Magical Law Enforcement Training Program when I received a phone call from a No-maj police officer and he told me that my parents were found dead in our apartment.”

“No-maj?” he asked, slightly confused.

“Oh, it’s how we Americans refer to those who are non-magical,” he explained. “What’s the word you British use again?”

“Muggles,” provided Voldemort.

“Right,” he chuckled self-deprecatingly. “Muggles.”

“Are you a Mud – Muggleborn, Lawrence?” Voldemort asked shrewdly, trying to hide the disgust to the best of his abilities, because, of course, the body he could finally use to move around freely had to belong to a Mudblood.

“If you’re asking whether my parents were non-magical then, yes, I’m a Muggleborn or however you want to call it. It’s not like it matters anymore,” he sighed in resignation. “I’ll be dead soon anyway and it won’t matter when I’m dead now, will it?”

“About that,” said Voldemort, “I might have a solution that will benefit both of us.”

Lawrence looked warily at him. “What solution?”

“You say you want to die and I have spent the last fourteen years wishing to be alive and having my own body. I’m a wizard too, you know,” he said, “and even though I lost most of my powers, there’s still one power that I have.”

“Which is?” prompted Lawrence.

“Possession,” he said in a sibilant whisper. “I can possess animals … and people.”

Lawrence paled and swallowed hard. “Y-You want to p-possess me?”

“If you let me, I could take over your body …” He circled him and ended close to his ear. “I could make your soul cease to exist. You get your wish and I get mine, simple as that. What do you say?”

Lawrence broke out in cold sweat, but then steeled himself by taking a deep breath with closed eyes. When he opened them, there was determination etched on his face. “I accept your offer,” he said.

Voldemort smile like a maniac and proceeded to possess the youngster.

…

They ended in Lawrence’s mental landscape, which reflected the young man’s current mental state, dark, empty, bleak, facing each other.

Lawrence took in his snake-like appearance, his flattened and slitted nose, his red eyes with narrow black pupils, his skeletal figure, his long spidery fingers and limbs, his gaunt cheeks.

“So …” he began, not as nearly repulsed as many before him have been upon looking at his distorted features. “This is how you looked when you were still alive?”

“Yes,” he hissed with a wicked smirk. “Does it frighten you?”

Lawrence shook his head. “Why would I fear my saviour?”

His eyebrows arched in surprise. A moment later, he started snickering.

“Did I say something funny?” wondered Lawrence.

“You must be the first person to consider me a saviour of any kind. For that and for letting me have your body, I believe I will do you a favour. All you have to do is ask me to do something for you.”

“But I don’t have any favour to ask.”

“Really?” He walked up to him. “Not even revenge against those who pushed you to this point?” Lawrence’s eyes widened. Voldemort stepped behind his back and spoke into his ear. “Once I have full control over your body, I can hunt them down and make them pay for every insult, humiliation and curse you suffered at their hands.”

“I c-can’t do that.” He shook his head, his eyes filled with fear. “Unlike me, they have families, friends. I c-can’t.”

“And they had the right to treat you worse than dirt because you have no one?” insisted Voldemort. “If they can be so cruel to someone who has done absolutely nothing to them, then what makes you think they will look out for the people they were trained to protect as Aurors?”

The pensive look on Lawrence’s face told Voldemort that he took the bait.

“Lawrence,” he spoke softly and kindly, “those who hurt you are bad people. They are just as bad if not worse than the criminals they pursue, because they present a civil and kind front, but deep down, they are nothing but monsters. Do you want the Magical Law Enforcement to be plagued by scum like them?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Then, they have to die.”

Lawrence turned to him. “Alright,” he nodded. “Then, that is my favour. My last wish. Kill the monsters that have tortured me for months.”

Voldemort grinned like a madman. “With pleasure, Lawrence.”

With that, Voldemort bit down onto Lawrence’s shoulder and started devouring him and with every piece of soul that he devoured, memories of Lawrence’s life since childhood to the present flashed through his own mind.

…

Once the process was complete and Voldemort was the only soul left inside the body, he slowly opened his new eyes. He looked around and down at himself. He had hands, arms, and legs. He moved the fingers and took a few steps to test his new limbs. He touched the face.

“Finally,” he said in his new voice. “After so many years, I finally have a functioning body.”

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and focussed on the magic flowing through him. He reached for Lawrence’s wand and cast a few simple spells to test out the waters with the new wand. The wand didn’t seem all that happy, probably sensing the shift in the change of personalities, souls and magic inside the body, but it would have to serve him, because it didn’t have much choice or other owners.

He started cackling.

“ _Hatchling?_ ” He turned to Nagini. “ _Can you still understand me?_ ”

He smiled and extended an arm to her so she could climb it. “ _Of course I can, my dear,_ ” he assured her, as she settled around his torso and shoulders.

She nuzzled him. “ _For a moment I was worried you would lose the ability to understand and talk to me,_ ” she confessed.

“ _If I didn’t lose the ability as a spirit, then I don’t see how I could have lost it by taking over a Mudblood’s body_ ,” he said with a smile.

She snuggled her head into his neck.

“ _Let’s leave this forest for good and go somewhere comfortable,_ ” he said, walking in the direction of the Leaky Cauldron, because the idiot not only resigned from his job post at the Ministry, he also got rid of his apartment and he barely had enough money to last him the week.

…

After making himself and Nagini comfortable, Voldemort set out to kill the people who have bullied Lawrence. There were five men in total. With Lawrence’s memories, he knew exactly how they looked so tracking them down was relatively easy.

He lured them one by one into secluded and remote areas by sending each of them a letter pretending to be one of the other four. Only in one case, he pretended to be the mistress of one of them, because he had the perfect scenario for a murder in mind.

As much as he wished to perform the Killing Curse, the Aurors would know immediately something was off upon investigation and he needed to make it look unrelated to him … or rather Lawrence, because the last thing he needed was being sent to Azkaban. Preferably, he needed it to look like suicides or like a crime of passion in the case of the mistress.

He imperioed the first one into writing a suicide letter and mailing it to his family, where he confessed all the bullying he’d done to Lawrence and how the guilt had become too great for him to bear. After he had him write the letter, he ordered him to jump in front of an incoming muggle train.

He imperioed the second one as well, but unlike the first one, he didn’t have him write anything, he just ordered him to climb on top of a tall muggle building and jump to his death. The sound of the body crashing on top of a muggle bus and the screams of terror from muggles that ensued were like music to Voldemort’s ears.

He had a bit of fun with the third one. He had the cheating husband meet with his mistress and then cast the Imperius Curse on the woman, ordered her to kill him and then modified her memories in a similar fashion he did back with his maternal uncle when he killed his father and paternal grandparents.

He had the fourth one hang himself in the same forest Lawrence tried to hang himself and for the fifth one, he imperioed a few muggle street delinquents into killing the man and taking his money, because he needed the money for himself and Nagini, until he found a job.

After the deed was complete, he modified their memories and walked off whistling a cheerful melody.

…

Not long after, he stumbled upon the job advertisement for the Defence Professor at Hogwarts. It surprised him to see that the one to publish the advertisement was not Dumbledore but Minerva McGonagall, the Headmistress of Hogwarts, and upon a bit of investigation, he learnt that Dumbledore was in Azkaban for conspiring against the Potters and trying to get his hands on the prophecy child.

‘ _Serves him right_ ,’ thought Voldemort with glee.

He immediately applied for the post, because not only would he have a place to stay, but he would also be close to his nemesis and if everything turned out all right, he would kill her before the school year was over, preferably with the basilisk.

Casting a parsel disillusionment spell on Nagini, he attended the job interview in Minerva’s new office.

…

“I have read your references, Mr. Nightingale,” she said when they were both sitting, each with a cup of steaming hot tea in front of them. “I must say that while you seem to be a fine Auror, I’m intrigued by your short employment time at the Ministry here in Britain and your inability to cast the Patronus Charm. Would you mind elaborating a bit on those two things, Mr. Nightingale? If you don’t mind, of course.”

“Certainly, Headmistress,” he returned politely. “I lost my ability to perform the Patronus Charm when my parents passed away.”

Her hands flew up to her mouth. “Oh, my. I am really sorry to hear that.”

“Thank you for your concern. I know it’s been a few years since their passing, but losing them so suddenly was a great shock.”

“I can imagine.”

“As for my short time at the Ministry of Magic, it pains me to say that I was forced to resign for my own mental well-being.”

“What happened?”

“The people I was working with,” he paused, forcing himself to appear shaken and distressed. “They – they tormented me daily. I would rather not say everything that transpired during those hellish months, just know that I felt so miserable there, that if I had stayed a day longer than I have, I would probably have committed suicide.”

Minerva looked horrified at the admission. “I’m sorry if my question brought unpleasant memories to the forefront of your mind.”

“It’s okay.”

“Well, I certainly think that you won’t have to experience anything like that here at Hogwarts. Some students might cause problems for you, but overall, the staff is very kind, open and supportive of one another.”

“Hearing that makes me extremely happy,” he said with a smile.

…

He signed the one-year employment contract and he was introduced to a highly pregnant Sirius Black, who had been serving as the Defence teacher for the past four years, despite the curse he placed on the position trying its best to get rid of him.

He showed him to his classroom, office and room, which were in a completely different location than from what he remembered. He needed to remind himself that Lawrence was never a student here and thus would not know about the layout of the castle, so no matter how curious he was to ask why the location changed, he couldn’t ask about it, unless presented with the opportunity to do it of course.

“It’s a very big castle,” he said instead.

“It is,” agreed Sirius, “especially when you first come here either as a member of staff or a student, but not to worry, feel free to explore at your heart’s content before the classes start. Or if you wish, one of the staff could offer you an official castle tour.”

“I will try to find my way around it first, but I will keep the offer in mind,” he replied with a radiant smile.

“This is the classroom,” he said as they entered.

Voldemort looked around. He wasn’t sure he ever had classes in this particular classroom. It was probably used for some extracurricular activity or for a subject that was no longer taught at Hogwarts.

“It’s quite spacious and colourful,” he commented, recognising some of the things from the old classroom, but most of the hangings featured student projects on dark creatures and different dark spells and their counter-spells. There were even a few cheat sheets with the difference between jinxes, hexes and curses explained or most common defensive and offensive spells hanging on the wall.

“It is,” said Black, satisfied. “I tried to transfer as much material from the old DADA classroom here, but I much prefer how it looks now. The students have done a fine job on their group projects and I have used them as part of the classroom’s décor.”

“Why did you change classrooms?” he asked.

“There’s a curse on the position and most of the curse is focussed on the classroom and its adjacent office and bedroom. Headmistress hired a team of Aurors, but they couldn’t do anything about it. I managed to hold on for two and half years before it got too much for me and I had to change my work environment. For now, it’s been working quite fine.”

“Should I be worried about the curse in any way?” he said, feigning concern.

“I don’t think so,” he assured him. “But caution is advised.”

He led him to the door in the back. “Here’s your office,” he said signalling to the small room with a desk, bookshelves and other cabinets. “And through that door,” he gestured toward it, “is your bedroom. Don’t worry, it hasn’t been slept in at all, I sleep with my husband down in the dungeons. You will be able to meet him and my daughter in the Great Hall for the meal. For now, take your time unpacking and looking through your new work and sleeping arrangements. In a couple of days, when you will be a bit more familiarised with everything, I will go through the curriculum with you and give you some of the material I’ve designed and have been using for the past year or so.”

“Thank you. You are very kind.”

He held up the smile until the door closed behind Black and he was finally alone. He rolled his eyes and felt irritated that he had to smile so much and act all ignorant, but it should be worth it in the end.

As for Black’s husband and daughter, while Black might not have said it, he had a feeling he knew exactly who the husband and the daughter were.

…

He wasn’t wrong about it, when he sat down at the staff table and saw Severus Snape and Adriana Potter. However, what caught his eyes as he greeted her were the diadem on her head and the locket around her neck.

It took every ounce of self-control he had to keep smiling charmingly and politely, because beneath his fake façade, he was both worried and angry.

How did she come by two of his horcruxes? He could understand the diadem since it was in the castle, but even then, how could she find it? Moreover, what about the locket? It should have been in a basin filled with the Emerald Potion, not around his nemesis’ neck! Worn as some sort of trophy or jewellery, even though they technically were two pieces of jewellery.

“Those are a very nice diadem and locket you have there,” he praised. “May I ask how you came by such fine pieces of jewellery?”

“The necklace was a gift from my father Sirius when I was four after my grandmother Walburga passed away, and the tiara was something I found here in the castle,” she said passive-aggressively.

A gift? Never mind that. How in Salazar’s name could the locket even be at Walburga’s place? Someone must have found out his secret and dared to steal his horcrux from the cave. They were either very brave or very stupid to have dared do such a thing.

“And do you know you’re wearing Salazar Slytherin’s locket and Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem?” he pressed. He felt his anger rise and bleed through his voice a bit, and he had to remind himself that he wasn’t supposed to know much about Hogwarts or its founders. He was a graduate of Ilvermorny, not Hogwarts.

“So what?” she said, unimpressed. “Both the necklace and the tiara are mine now, what do I care who they belonged to before anyway?”

“They are historical artefacts of great value.”

Adriana rolled her eyes at that. “If you’ll excuse me,” she rose to her feet haughtily, “I am going to my room to work on my baby brother’s clothes. I hear babies are prone to drooling a lot, so I have to make sure my parents have enough fashionable items to choose. I’ll see you for dinner, sir.”

And just like that … she left, walking away like some kind of royalty, taking his horcruxes away with her, and he couldn’t do anything about it … for now anyway.

…

While everyone was busy fawning over Black and Snape’s newborn brat, he sneaked into the girl’s bathroom that led to Salazar’s Chamber. Making sure the ghost of that wretched girl was nowhere in sight, he opened the entrance to greet an old friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since apparently George lost his ability to cast a Patronus after Fred's death, I thought it would be a fitting for Voldemort to use the death of Lawrence's parents as an excuse why he can't cast the Patronus.


	9. DADA Professor Nightingale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Voldemort's observations of school changes and Adriana.

It wasn’t until Voldemort started reading the school rules that he realised just how many things were different from when he was a student or even from when Dumbledore was the headmaster.

For one, the school uniforms weren’t obligatory anymore. While the uniforms weren’t completely replaced by every day clothes, many had embraced the change and displayed their house affiliation by owning and displaying house-themed stationery and jewellery.

Two, in order to prevent or at the very least minimise peer violence, professors had to escort the students to and from lessons and meals. During students’ free time, teachers were assigned supervising duty to keep an eye on what went on in the corridors and courtyards. The heads of houses surveyed the dormitories on a daily basis as well. The supervision extended even to Hogsmeade visits.

In addition to the supervision, teachers were required to attend lectures and workshops about bullying, its effects and learn strategies of prevention and intervention, then implement them in their profession.

Three, to prevent students out of dormitories past curfew, the dormitory entries were now closed off automatically during the night and could only be opened from the outside by a member of staff. Meaning that if a student was locked outside the dormitory, they were forced to report to a teacher unless they wanted to risk being caught sleeping in an empty classroom, corridor, cupboard, or toilet.

Four, to promote inter-house unity, there was no House Cup anymore and while there was still Quidditch Cup, instead of the usual four house teams, now, there were four mixed teams featuring students from all four houses.

Five, it would seem that detentions were no longer a thing, and while rule-breaking and other transgressions were punished, there was now a uniform list of how many points an individual student could lose for different types of misbehaviour and how many points a student could earn through different activities. Another form of punishment was also loss of privileges, such as Hogsmeade visits, or receiving extra assignments.

Six, teachers were also required to have office hours and offer additional academic help to any student that might want or need it.

In terms of subject curricula, she didn’t change them much, mostly because of the Ministry, however, from what Black told him, she gave each teacher enough freedom to approach them in whichever way they wanted. The only thing they needed to do was talk with her about anything in particular and if everyone in the staff deemed it appropriate, then they could include it in their curriculum.

Luckily, he didn’t have to worry too much about the Defence curriculum, because Black had done the job for him already by giving him detailed lesson plans for each lesson from first to seventh year and all the material he used, and since he didn’t plan to stay at Hogwarts after the school year was over, there was no need to complicate things. He didn’t necessarily look forward to using the same teaching methods as Black, but then again he didn’t like the fact that the body he was possessing belonged to a Mudblood and that he had such a muggle name, that he had to act polite, and that he had to smile so much his face muscles hurt.

By the time the lessons officially started, Voldemort was already tired of everything and everybody and simply thinking he would have to suffer hundreds of students for the next ten months gave him headaches. At least he could vent all his frustrations to Nagini and Salazar’s familiar.

…

After suffering through the boring sorting ceremony of first years and annoying chatter of other teachers, it was time for Voldemort to put his acting skills further to the test and see if he was able to enter into the brats’ good graces.

Surprisingly, his first week went all right. The students still needed a bit of time to get used to him, but since he was using the same approach as Black before him, there was no major shock on their part. The only downside of the entire week was Adriana Potter.

At the beginning of the first lesson, she had the audacity to ignore his presence in the classroom at the beginning in favour of showing pictures of her baby brother to her classmates. Then, during his introductory explanation of the course syllabus, she dared take out her pocket mirror to check on her appearance. When they were revising spells and creatures from previous years, she refused to participate on her own and when he called on her regardless of a dozen other enthusiastically raised hands, she just stared blankly at him and said. “I don’t remember that right now.”

However, that was not even the worst of her weirdness. While she did every home assignment and answered most questions correctly when forced to participate, more often than not, she only did the bare minimum and looked extremely bored most of the time, unless she was secretly sketching something while pretending she was writing down his explanations. Another striking thing he noticed about her was that she wore different clothes and hairstyle every day and never once her clothes or hairstyle repeated no matter how many days or weeks had passed since meeting her. As for his horcruxes, she constantly wore the locket around her neck and while there were days she would leave the diadem in her dormitory, more often than not, she wore it on her head.

The first major confrontation between them happened at the end of September, when during his supervising duty, he noticed her and a group of girls from all four houses chatting excitedly and on their merry way past the Hogwarts territory. Naturally, he stopped them.

“Ladies, where do you think you’re going?”

Adriana gave him a blank stare. “To Hogsmeade, of course,” she said as if it was obvious.

“As far as I know, the Hogsmeade weekend isn’t due until November. Therefore you are not going to set a foot outside of Hogwarts grounds until then,” he said, smiling politely.

“What?” She gasped, shocked, and a hand flew up to her chest as she swayed backwards, her group of girls supporting and waving their hands at her. “I can’t believe this,” she breathed, apparently on the verge of fainting.

“Adriana,” they called in unison. “Hang in there.”

“Please, Professor,” said one of the Slytherin girls. “We won’t be long; we just need some make-up and hair potions.”

“Yeah, we’re running low on our products.”

“No,” he was resolute.

“I don’t suppose a plebeian like you would understand it,” said Adriana upset, “but unlike some people who clearly don’t care about their appearance, having perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect nails and perfect make-up is _everything_ to us. Besides, guess what, Ken,” she huffed, “I’m not bound by official Hogsmeade visits. If I want to, I can go to Hogsmeade whenever I wish. Ask anyone on the staff and they will tell you the same.”

“If that’s true, then kindly accompany me to see your parents to see if you’re saying the truth, because no one informed me of your particular privilege.”

Huffing and scowling, she straightened the skirt of her green and silver Renaissance style dress and followed him to the castle.

As it turned out, the insufferable brat indeed had permission to leave Hogwarts grounds at her leisure regardless of official Hogsmeade weekend dates. However, that didn’t mean he didn’t feel annoyed by the entire situation.

…

October was similar to September, boring and relatively uneventful with Voldemort growing increasingly annoyed with Adriana. Until Samhain. He was in his office, waiting for a student to come to his office hours, when someone knocked.

“Enter.”

The door opened and through them walked the youngest Weasley, a fourth-year if he wasn’t mistaken, and there was something off about her.

“Good afternoon, Professor,” she greeted politely. “Or should I say … Lord Voldemort?”

Voldemort froze, but made sure nothing in his expression could betray his shock. “Excuse me?” he said dryly. “What are you talking about?”

The girl laughed and her eyes shone bright red. “Oh come on, Voldemort.” The possessed girl sat carelessly on the table. “Don’t act stupid, because it doesn’t suit you, though I must confess I was really shocked when this brat told me about your unfortunate demise at the hands of a toddler no less. Truly pathetic for the most powerful wizard and Dark Lord of all time,” the girl sneered.

He narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.

“Say … how did you come across this body and what’s with the name Lawrence Nightingale?” she chuckled. “Though I suppose such a boring and common name would never raise suspicions or be associated with Lord Voldemort.”

Voldemort’s jaw and fists clenched.

“What is it? Aren’t you going to say anything?” she prompted. “Don’t tell me you don’t recognise your own soul when it’s standing in front of you?” said the girl mockingly.

A horcrux was possessing her; the question now was which one.

“What do you want?” Voldemort snarled at the possessed Weasley. “How did you get here?”

He observed the girl reach into her robe pocket and pull out a black leather-bound book, “Abraxas’ son panicked about a raid on his manor and got rid of dark artefacts, including the diary. He intended to sell me at Borgin and Burkes, but ultimately decided to sneak me into Ginevra Weasley’s cauldron of school supplies. Not that I was thrilled to become the confidant of a hormonal teenager, but I’ve found a way to slowly suck the life out of her and was planning to use her to open the Chamber, kill mudbloods and, once I was done with that, use her to get my body back. However, then I sensed you and several other horcruxes and I got curious as to why so many parts of Lord Voldemort were at Hogwarts at the same time and abandoned that plan … for now. As for what I want, I believe I already hinted at it.”

“A body. Is that what you want?”

“Exactly. I’m tired of being stuck in the book and … if you’re up for it, we could form an alliance of sorts against that Potter brat. You intend to kill her, are you not?”

“I am, but not for the reasons you think,” he said.

The diary-possessed Weasley arched an eyebrow. “Oh and why do you want to kill her if not because she’s the reason you lost your body?”

“First, the brat didn’t do anything, it was her mudblood mother who made a pact with a demon and the demon stopped the Killing Curse and threw it back at me,” he snarled.

The diary was in shock.

“As for why I want to kill her … there is a prophecy that says she will be my demise and I can’t let her live long enough to do that.”

The diary looked sceptically at him. “I don’t know. From what I’ve heard about her, she doesn’t seem like the type. If anything, she sounds obnoxiously girly, obsessed with health and beauty.” The body of the Weasley girl shivered. “I would have killed her simply for being so irritating and annoying, not because she was in any way dangerous. Although, if you insist, we will kill her and I will use her soul to gain a body. What do you say? Are we in this together?”

Voldemort scrutinised the diary, but agreed to his proposition. “Although, there are a few conditions.”

“What conditions?”

“We have to wait until the end of the year as to not cause an uproar and panic with her death this early into the school year.”

“Alright,” nodded the diary.

“And I’m taking you away from this Weasley brat, because it’s already enough that one annoying girl has possession of my horcruxes. I don’t need another.”

“Please do,” he said eagerly. “I can’t stand the ramblings of a teenage girl. If I have to listen to another rant about good-looking boys I think I’m going to vomit, even though I’m not sure I can even do that.”

Voldemort took the diary out of she-Weasley’s hands and she immediately slumped like a ragdoll to the floor as the horcrux left her. Taking out his wand he pointed it at the girl, modified her memories into making her believe she never came across his diary horcrux and that she came to his office hours to ask about an assignment for Defence.

Once he was alone with the spectre of his horcrux, he let out a heavy sigh, pinched his nose and slumped in his chair.

The diary interrupted the silence. “I told you what you wanted to know about me, yet you still haven’t told me how you came across your current body and name.”

He looked at his horcrux, his sixteen-year-old self and told him about hiding in a forest and coming across the American mudblood Lawrence Nightingale, who came to that same forest to kill himself and whom he possessed and devoured so he could be the only soul occupying the body.

His horcrux crossed his arms, grimacing. He wasn’t thrilled to know the body belonged to a mudblood or that he kept everything the same about Lawrence Nightingale, but he understood why he chose to keep it like that. “Although, I hope you don’t intend to remain in this body forever,” he told him.

“And what do you suppose I do to get my old body back?” he asked him. For some reason he was feeling incredibly tired and exhausted.

“I’m sure there’s a ritual or potion that can allow you to get your body back.”

“I know one, but it would involve bones of our muggle father and the blood of the enemy, meaning Adriana Potter, and flesh of a servant. This last one might prove to be difficult to find, since most of our followers are either dead or imprisoned in Azkaban.”

“Luckily, you can request for a week off during Yule or Easter holidays, and we can come up with a plan to free at least one of our followers from Azkaban.” He paused, giving him a weird look.

“What are you looking at?” Voldemort snarled.

The diary spoke, slightly concerned. “Voldemort … I don’t know what’s happening or why it’s happening … but your skin is cracking like stone.”

Voldemort reached for a mirror and looked at his pale visage and small, but visible, cracks in his skin. The strangest thing about it all was that there was no blood coming out of the cracks … as if he were truly made out of stone.


	10. Unforgivable Curses and Other Unforgivable Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adriana finally confesses her dislike for Defence to her parents, Voldemort learns a couple of things about his condition and a confrontation between the two ensues during a DADA lesson about unforgivable curses.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT: Due to increased workload, I will take a month-long break from all of my stories. Chapter 11 of Adriana and Voldemort: The Beginning will be posted on Wednesday, 2 October 2019 and from there, the regular biweekly (every two weeks) updating schedule should continue uninterruptedly until the end. Should my workload increase again, I will let you know, but let's hope it won't happen any time soon.
> 
> I apologise for the inconvenience and I hope you understand.
> 
> In the meantime, enjoy the chapter! 🤗

“Who’s the most handsome prince?” Adriana cooed at Felix, after she changed him into one of the onesies she sewed for him, holding him in front of her face and rubbing their noses together. Her baby brother squealed excitedly. “Who’s the most handsome prince?” she repeated with a wide smile and her baby brother let out a string of coos. “Yes, you are!” she exclaimed, holding him close to her, placing loud kisses all over his chubby cheeks, eliciting more giggles from him.

Their parents were sitting in a nearby armchair, observing them, a smile resting on both their faces.

“Adriana,” called Sirius gently. She looked at her fathers. “Severus and I would like to talk with you about your behaviour in Defence.”

Her grin dissolved into an annoyed grimace. “What of it?”

“Professor Nightingale has brought to our attention that you don’t seem motivated in his class,” said Severus, “and that you struggle with paying attention because you’re too busy daydreaming or working on your designs, or looking at yourself in the mirror and while you’re not failing the subject your grades are lower than your previous years.”

“Did something happen?” inquired Sirius softly. She didn’t meet their eyes. “Adri, you know you can tell us everything. If there’s anything bothering you, you can tell us and we will do our best to help you.”

She sighed and looked at them. “You want to know, what’s the matter with me?”

“Of course,” said Sirius.

“Even if you might not like what I’m about to tell you?”

Severus and Sirius looked wary. “Yes,” assured her Severus.

“Alright,” she nodded, “I’ll tell you what’s going on.” She took a deep breath and said, “I strongly dislike Defence. Although even that is an understatement.”

Her parents gawked at her. “That’s it?” prompted Severus. “You behave so carefree in Defence because you dislike it?”

“Pretty much,” she shrugged. “I don’t particularly care for my grades there. I’m more than happy with Acceptable. I still do my homework and if I know an answer to a question and the professor calls on me I answer it, but I don’t care about the subject. I hate it. Despise it. Abhor it. The only reason I got Exceeds Expectations and an occasional Outstanding in the last four years was because of you Papa Siri.”

“Me?” he looked confused.

“Yes, because you’re my father and I didn’t want to hurt or disappoint you, because it’s obvious that you like the subject you teach and you are a very well-liked and good teacher,” she admitted. “And no matter how much I hate the subject, I just couldn’t bring myself to preform mediocrely in it, no matter how painful and tedious it got putting in all that effort to get that lousy E, when I could have been doing other productive and much more enjoyable things.”

Sirius was lost for words.

“Is there a particular reason why you hate Defence so ardently?” asked Severus carefully.

She huffed. “Aside from the curse that nearly killed my father, I don’t find it useful, much like Astronomy and History, but while History provides me with the time to do my manicure, style my hair and touch up on my makeup and Astronomy is ruining my beauty sleep, Defence is messy, it’s barbaric, because that’s what duelling is … savagery. Barbarism. What’s the point of duelling anyway other than to rough up the other person because you don’t like them?”

Both Severus and Sirius looked stunned at their daughter’s confession that was just spilling out of her after holding onto her thoughts and opinions about the subject for years.

“The only useful part of the subject is the counter curses to those nasty spells that mess with your hair, skin, nails and general health, because I care about my health. I care about my image. I care about my appearance. I don’t want to ruin my hair, skin, nails and clothes. That’s why I adore Potions and Herbology so much, because I learn so much about health and skincare and what potions are good to boost your immune system, to provide you with the necessary nutrients, to clear up your pores, to brighten your skin, to keep it hydrated, smooth and soft, to keep your hair all silky, strong and healthy. All the medicinal and skincare properties of magical plants. I like Charms and Transfiguration too.”

“I know that there aren’t much beauty and health oriented things in Defence,” said Sirius after clearing his throat, “but it is still useful, especially defensive spells.”

She shrugged, gently rocking Felix. “I suppose, but I still have no interest in the subject. Or appreciation for it.”

“Is it safe to assume that you won’t be continuing with Defence for your N.E.W.T.s?” asked Severus.

“Yes. I plan to drop History, Astronomy, Defence, and possibly Care of Magical Creatures. I will continue with Potions, Herbology, Ancient Runes, Charms and Transfiguration. Those are more than enough for the career I want to pursue.”

“Which is?” they asked in unison.

“Ooph, it’s hard to name it, because I want to do so many things, but I suppose I want to have my own business empire with my own clothes, health, skincare, makeup, perfume, hair, jewellery, and shoes lines and be both high-end as well as affordable so I can become the most successful and wealthiest person on Earth. Even more successful and wealthier than that tech muggle genius … uh … what’s his name … uh … Bob Gates.”

Her ambitious statement left them speechless again, but they were looking forward to seeing her succeed in her endeavour.

…

Not knowing the cause and source of the cracks in his skin, Voldemort resorted to covering his state with strong glamours.

Through November, his cracks intensified, he felt increasingly exhausted and towards the end of the month, he found himself having severe coughing fits, which mostly ended in him coughing up blood.

For a moment, he thought that maybe the curse he placed on the Defence post was somehow affecting him, but the curse should be able to recognise his magic, despite him having a different body. Then, he considered the possibility of something going wrong when he took over the body, but if that were the case, then he would have been experiencing problems much earlier. There was another possibility that crossed his mind, or rather two.

The first one had to do with there being a correlation between the amount of magic he used and the state of his body and the second one had to do with there being a dissonance between the soul and the body, meaning that regardless of what he did, his soul and magic were too powerful for the mudblood’s body to sustain it long-term.

To see which of the two theories held true, he had to take at least a week off and refrain from using the slightest bit of magic, which was going to be very difficult, especially because he wouldn’t be able to glamour his cracks. Luckily, he was determined to stay in his room and not receive any visitors for the duration of his little experiment.

After informing McGonagall about how he was feeling under the weather and that he would like to take a week off from classes, she readily agreed and insisted he go to the Hospital wing to see Madam Pomfrey.

“That won’t be necessary,” he said, smiling politely. “I’ll be better after some good rest. It’s not the first time this has happened to me.”

“If you say so,” said McGonagall unconvinced, “but if your illness gets worse, please, do not hesitate to look for Poppy.”

With that, he barricaded himself in his room and observed the state of his body, which was deteriorating even after an entire week of not using magic, albeit at a very slow rate, and came to the following conclusion: the physical body he had presently was too weak to handle his magic and active use of magic sped up the entire deterioration process. However, he wasn’t entirely sure how to counter it or slow it down without having to limit the use of his magic and constantly resorting to glamours to hide the signs of deterioration.

When the easily available and well-known healing potions, spells and balms failed to produce desired results, the diary horcrux suggested he use either phoenix tears or unicorn blood. Both known to save people even when they were on the brink of death.

There was the school phoenix, of course, but the problem was coming up with an appropriate reason for the animal to give an entire vial of his tears.

“Since phoenixes are part of the Defence curriculum, you could say you want to showcase the power of their tears in fifth-year classes,” suggested the diary.

Voldemort’s eyes narrowed in thought, considering the suggestion. “You know, I like the suggestion, but I don’t know if a single vial of tears will be enough to last me until the end of the year.”

“Then the next time you start severely falling apart, you go kill a unicorn on the school premises and collect as much blood as you need,” deadpanned the diary. “Problem solved, until you recover your own body.”

…

McGonagall didn’t mind letting him gather Fawkes’ tears for a demonstration, however, she was worried about how exactly he was going to demonstrate their immense healing powers.

“Do not worry, Headmistress,” he assured her, “no student will get hurt. I will perform the demonstration on myself.” Although if he were honest, he was very much tempted to maim Adriana Potter as part of the demonstration.

He remembered a particular November lesson about Unforgivable Curses. He was explaining the three curses and their effects, when, suddenly, the girl in question, who was wearing a Victorian style dress with a corset bodice and a very poufy skirt, paired with a very sophisticated and delicate headpiece, lifted her arm high in the air.

He stopped talking and directed a very forced and fake smile Adriana’s way. “Yes, miss?”

“You know, Professor,” she began haughtily, “I’m listening to your explanation about unforgivable curses and what they do, but honestly I still don’t understand why they are unforgivable. So what if there’s a killing curse, a mind-controlling curse, and a torture curse, like, there are other things that are even more unforgivable than unforgivable curses, you know?” she said in her obnoxious holier-than-thou tone and mannerisms.

Voldemort could feel his blood boil and his veins in his forehead pulse with anger and frustration, and he had to clench his fist behind his back to refrain from cursing her. It took all the self-control he possessed to continue smiling.

“That is very true, miss,” he said in an upbeat tone. Oh, how he hated using such a happy tone.

“Do you want to know what _I_ consider to be even more unforgivable than unforgivable curses?”

“If you don’t mind sharing your thoughts with the rest of us, please do.”

“Well, here it goes. I think that the fact that there is not a _single_ wizarding beauty salon in Britain is even more unforgivable than the unforgivable curses combined,” she said, dead serious.

He just stared at her in disbelief. He heard a snapping sound somewhere inside his mind, followed by a feeling of numbness and emptiness. ‘ _Ah,_ ’ he thought, ‘ _this must be how if sounds and feels like when your brain cells are dying._ ’

“Like, _hello_ ,” she continued talking in that irritating tone, “why aren’t magical beauty salons a thing? How difficult would it be to set one up here at Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley?” She sounded and looked so affronted, as if some gigantic injustice had been committed against her person. “Right now, if I want to have my hair cut professionally and have a relaxing professional massage, I have to go to a _muggle_ beauty salon at least once a year during summer holidays to get pampered like a queen.” She huffed. “Like, can you believe it?” she said upset. “It’s outrageous, I tell you. Who cares about unforgivable curses when you have a national magical beauty and wellness crisis? Unacceptable.”

She started fanning herself with one hand while the other was massaging her temple and forehead. “Professor,” she said faintly, “I don’t feel so good. All this talk about inexistence of magical beauty salons has affected me greatly.”

Her schoolmates, both male and female, as well as Gryffindor and Slytherin, were suddenly gathering around her, concerned for her well-being. Voldemort simply stared at the display, unable to comprehend how in the world Adriana was so popular, and well liked with the rest of the student populace. If he were her classmate, he would have used her for target practice for dark magic or ignored her.

A chorus of shrieks brought him out of his reverie.

“Professor,” said Malfoy’s spawn urgently, while Adriana had apparently fainted, with her dorm mates supporting her and the bushy-haired mudblood fanning her face with a textbook. “We need to take her to the Hospital Wing.”

She could just lie on the floor for the rest of the lesson for all he cared, preferably somewhere where he could ‘accidentally’ step on her during his lecture.

“Of course,” he said instead, with fake concern. “If one of you gentleman would be so kind as to carry Miss Potter to the infirmary, that would be much appreciated.”

Now all the males were competing and discussing who was going to carry the girl to the infirmary. Could this get any more ridiculous?! When a couple of minutes passed by and it didn’t seem like the fifth-year male students would reach a consensus on who would be the one to carry Adriana, he had to intervene.

“Enough,” he said with authority, silencing the students at once. “Since apparently you can’t agree on who is going to carry Miss Potter to the infirmary, I will be the one to do it.” He walked over to where she was sprawled against her dorm mates, pulled her by the arms with no delicacy, and draped her over his shoulder, which ended up being a bad idea, because now her skirt was all up in his face.

The students themselves looked scandalised and the girls started speaking all at once. The only thing he caught was “That is not how you carry a lady,” before he started for the door, stopped, turned, and said, “There’s a stack of worksheets on the table, each take one and start filling them out,” before he left the classroom.

…

Finding it strange that she was still unconscious, he decided to see if she was truly as unconscious as it seemed. Smirking wickedly, he smacked her across the backside and got a yelp out of her.

“How dare you spank me, you – you … insufferable Ken!” she said outraged, trying to wriggle out of his grasp.

“I didn’t spank you,” he said casually.

“Of course you did. I felt it. My backside hurts. I’m reporting you and getting you fired!” she yelled.

He slapped her ass again and she gave another yelp.

“Let go of me, you savage!” she demanded. “If I bruise because of this, I will rain all of my fury onto you for daring to mark my body. It is already bad enough that Voldemort gave me that hideous scar that I have to cover daily with full-coverage foundation and concealer for you to bruise my backside as well.”

Concerned that someone would see or hear them, he looked for the nearest broomstick cupboard and shoved her inside unceremoniously, then followed her inside, locking the door behind them and covering her mouth with his hand.

With his other hand, he pulled out his wand, cast Lumos and snarled, “You will do no such thing.” His eyes had a dangerous and mad glint to them as he pressed his face close to hers, revelling in her wide eyes filled with fear. “Because I will make sure that you are unable to say a single thing about it.”

She swallowed dryly, her body shivering slightly. She mumbled something.

“I didn’t understand a thing you just said. I will remove my hand, but you better not scream or I’ll do more than just spank you.”

She nodded and he removed his hand.

“And how exactly will you ensure my silence? Will you kill me?”

He smirked. “That’s always a possibility.”

“I knew there was something weird and fake about you. My gut was telling me all along and now you finally show your true colours, Ken from hell,” she accused, scowling.

“It does get tiresome to act all friendly and happy all the time when there’s nothing I want to do more than to strangle you,” he said with a polite grin.

His gaze dropped to her chest, where his locket horcrux was resting. He went to reach for it to yank it off her neck, when she noticed where he was looking, let out a shriek, slapped him across the face and covered her chest.

Voldemort stumbled backwards.

“Not only are you a murderous psychopath, you’re also a pervert,” she exclaimed and tried to make her way towards the door.

“Oh no you don’t,” he snarled, grabbed her ankle and made her lose her balance. She let out a girly yelp as she landed on top of him and continued squirming.

His arms wrapped around her torso to keep her caged, then rolled them so he was on top of her, pressing his body weight against her. When she inhaled deeply to let out a particularly loud yell for help, he shut her up again with his hand.

She looked like a frightened prey beneath a predator, her always tidy and impeccable hair messy and out of place, her perfect makeup smudged, her clothes all wrinkled and dusty, her chest rising and falling erratically and something about their position and the sight before him made him feel good, powerful, elated … hard.

He cursed internally as soon as he felt his cock strain against his robes. His hopes that she didn’t feel his erection went flying out the proverbial window, when she froze, her eyes the size of saucers, then began her struggle anew.

Damnation, this was not going how he envisioned it. He planned to take her to the infirmary, excuse his slap across her ass as squashing a fly that had landed there, while keeping his polite and joyful mask in place, not locking himself inside a broomstick cupboard, threatening her, confessing to wanting to kill her through strangulation and having an erection … all because she looked messy, dirty and vulnerable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It would seem Adriana likes to call Voldemort Ken, as in the Barbie doll Ken 😂 And she's the Barbie. 😂


	11. Patronus Charm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT: Due to getting a full-time job I won't be able to update more than once a month. So the next update will be four weeks from today.
> 
> If you notice any errors in grammar or continuity, tell me. I looked it over, but I am tired from work and I may have overlooked something.
> 
> Otherwise, enjoy the chapter! 😇

“Will you stop moving,” he snapped impatiently at her. “I have absolutely no intention of defiling you. In fact, I don’t even have any sexual desire for you,” he assured her, because he really didn’t, but his erection made it difficult to believe.

She snorted, rolled her eyes, but complied and ceased her movements and looked away.

“I will remove my hand from your mouth, but you will remain quiet, because I’ve had it with you, and listen to what we’ll do. We’ve already wasted enough time with your unnecessary drama,” he whispered gravely.

Adriana glared indignantly at him.

“What happened in this cupboard between you and me stays between us. You will not say anything about this incident to anyone, but if you think you won’t be able to keep your mouth shut, I can erase your memories for you. It would certainly save me the trouble.” Her eyes widened in alarm and she froze beneath him.

It felt good holding that kind of power over his supposed nemesis and since seeing her dishevelled form provided him with much needed entertainment, he just might let her live until the end of the school year.

“What do you say, Miss Potter?” he prompted. “Will you keep your mouth shut or should I erase your memories instead?” He removed his hand so she could answer.

She swallowed hard, but nodded. “I will keep quiet,” she assured him.

“A wise choice,” he smirked wickedly. “Now,” he got to his feet, “here’s what we’ll do. We will go back to the classroom since it’s very evident that you don’t need to visit the infirmary and you will act as you usually do … like an obnoxious and spoiled brat who would have probably benefitted from a stricter upbringing.”

She looked like she wanted to say something, but refrained from making a comment.

“And if you ever pull another dramatic act in my class, I will give you detention even though it’s not something teachers give out to students anymore. Now get up,” he demanded, roughly pulling her up by the upper arm. She let out a surprised squeal. “And don’t even think about running or screaming because I will stun you and immediately start modifying your memories however I see fit.”

“Can I go to the toilet first?” she asked. “I can’t return all dishevelled to class.”

Voldemort looked her over again. Of course, she was right; people would find it suspicious if they saw her in that state, but he wouldn’t admit it aloud. “I will escort you to the bathroom and you will take care of your appearance. I’m sure you know the appropriate spells. You have five minutes, no dilly-dallying.”

With that, he unlocked the cupboard and looked down the corridor to make sure no one was passing by, then roughly pulled her after him and led her to the nearest bathroom she could use.

…

Adriana caught her bottom lip between her teeth to muffle a pained sound and was already lamenting the bruises that would form on her body. She would have to look through her ointments to find something to combat them, because she couldn’t let her parents or anyone else see them.

When they reached the bathroom, she was grateful for the five minutes away from the man, and then concentrated on her scarecrow-like hair, messed up make-up and dress, and felt like crying. The last several minutes were terrifying, she felt vulnerable for the first time in her life. It was the first time that she felt like relying on her parents would cause more harm than good and that scared her. Being on her own against this … horrifying Ken.

He was the living proof that outer beauty wasn’t synonymous with inner beauty. He was utterly horrid.

…

_Meanwhile, inside Adriana’s mind_

“Say,” said the locket carefully, “shouldn’t we intervene or something? I mean, the original is currently threatening Adriana.”

“Not yet,” said Marvolo. “We will only intervene if he starts choking or otherwise torturing her. Until then, we wait.”

“What about his threat to erase her memories?” he wondered.

“Of course we won’t allow it if he attempts it, but we can do that without revealing ourselves to him. We will only do so in a life-or-death situation,” returned Marvolo level-headedly.

Locket looked sceptical, but agreed with Marvolo. After all, he was the oldest and with the most experience and knowledge.

…

The following week, Adriana paid more attention in Defence and refrained from speaking in a way that would unnerve her professor. She still acted like herself outside Mr. Nightingale’s class so that others wouldn’t become suspicious, although it proved difficult to act carefree whenever he was in her line of sight or in her vicinity.

She avoided him like the plague whenever she could, but even with the size of Hogwarts castle, she couldn’t avoid him completely. It was as if they were destined to keep crossing paths outside the classroom. At least those interactions were brief, if extremely nerve wrecking.

The three Marvolos didn’t help much either, and the one she spent the most time with even had the audacity to tell her that she wasn’t in any real danger at all. She was flabbergasted when she heard him say it and felt extremely sceptical when he reassured her that none of them would let her come to grievous harm.

…

It wasn’t until Yule break that Adriana managed to relax in Mr. Nightingale’s presence again. In their last lesson of the calendar year, Mr. Nightingale had them attempt casting a Patronus.

After covering the charm theoretically in depth, they spent the last lesson trying to conjure it. She found it strange that the professor wanted her to demonstrate the charm for the class, when as a teacher he was supposed to be able to cast it himself. He was an ex-Auror too.

When she asked him why he couldn’t just demonstrate the charm himself, he told them he became unable to produce the Patronus after the death of his parents.

Her classmates immediately believed and empathised with him and she might have been the same had she not seen professor’s dark, sadistic and cruel side and even though she questioned the veracity of that particular statement, she couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable and a pang of sympathy for him, especially if it turned out to be true.

Without further ado, she got up from her seat and stood in front of her classmates, her wand in hand, ready to cast the Patronus. After Professor Nightingale talked her through the entire process one last time, she closed her eyes and focussed on all the happy things she had experienced, her love of fashion, beauty, health, unicorns, and her ambition to become famous and wealthy.

“ _Expecto Patronum_ ,” she said with determination and from the tip of her wand, a wisp of light shot out which then formed into what looked to be a majestic unicorn that graciously cantered across the classroom, leaving behind a barely visible rainbow trail.

Everyone gawked at it, speechless … even Professor Nightingale and Adriana couldn’t feel more smug about it.


End file.
